One in a Thousand
by Laryna6
Summary: After fighting the D-Reaper, Monodramon regains his memories of another warped and twisted god.
1. Chapter 1

_A collection of sequential scenes in the Tamers universe. They won't make much sense unless you know the plot of the Wonderswan games – you can find summaries, translations and other info at syldra dot net slash yesterday._

 _While humans don't have destined partners in the Tamers timeline, Ryo is from the Adventure timeline. He lost the partner lottery, and lost it hard. After a four-game-long Break The Cutie, first he went completely nonverbal from the PTSD and then his mind basically NOPE'd out of reality and all his memories in self-defense._

 _I found myself writing this_ thing _that couldn't make up its mind if it wanted to be a For Want Of A Nail where Monodramon got his memories back and nearly pulled Summon Bigger Fish on the D-Reaper, a plot for the Tamers reuniting with their partners and having to stop an angry god from killing Dr. Janyu Wong or I don't even know. Still, I found the scenes interesting to think about – I like toying with worldbuilding and characterization – and it seemed to be a shame to scrap some of them in the interests of fitting this into a multi-character plot._

 _I kept it in my documents folder until I decided what to do with it, but it seems determined to remain a collection of shiny beads on a string, so I will go ahead and post in case anyone else finds it shiny. I got dragged into writing for Ryo and Millenniummon since most of the what-ifs I wanted to see explored didn't exist – I can hope that posting the stabs I've taken at some of those what-ifs either inspires other writers or saves other people from the AARGH of craving fic and not being able to read it._

* * *

Searching inside, starting from the place Ryo appeared when they biomerged, Monodramon found it-him-in his bond with Ryo.

Well, of _course_ that was where Millenniummon would want to be, he thought for a moment, but no.

This digicore hadn't insinuated itself into Monodramon's bond with Ryo. Millenniummon's core _was_ his bond with Ryo.

Millenniummon was Ryo's true partner, and since Monodramon and Millenniummon were DNA Digivolved, they were bound together too. Monodramon was connected to Ryo only through Millenniummon.

But the core was dim.

Dead, he thought at first glance. Maybe the Evil God really was dead, after all those attempts to kill him. Maybe Ryo fighting him even after Ryo knew they were partners, maybe being sealed in that moment of despair had finally finished him off and Monodramon didn't know how to feel. Millenniummon was the threat to Ryo he'd vaguely remembered all of that time, the enemy he'd sensed that wanted his partner, but then he remembered the beginning of the DNA Digivolution, the despair at Millenniummon's core, envying Monodramon his place at Ryo's side so much that the evil Digimon's heart was willing to become one with Monodramon, just to be with Ryo.

Monodramon had done it because well, it was a chance. A chance to free his friend Ryo from the fate of having to fight his partner eternally. He hadn't known if he could really keep Millenniummon sealed. Maybe Millenniummon would seal him instead, and all Monodramon's gamble would accomplish was letting Millenniummon pretend to be him and do terrible things to Ryo. When he merged with Millenniummon, he hadn't known if he would ever wake up again.

Instead, Monodramon was the only one to wake up.

What it meant for someone's heart to choose to be sealed away? Millenniummon's conscious mind hadn't wanted to be imprisoned. Sleeping forever was the closest a Digimon like him could come to death.

Millenniummon couldn't die, not as long as Ryo lived, and even the most evil of Digimon couldn't bear to kill his partner. So the ENIAC had sent Monodramon to tempt him with… what? A place by Ryo's side, even if he would never be allowed to speak with or bother Ryo again?

Eternal slumber?

Could someone like Millenniummon really feel guilt for harming Ryo, even if only in his heart instead of his mind?

For a moment he felt sympathy for the evil god: thinking of missing Ryo for so long, only seeing Ryo when Ryo wanted to kill him, remembering how Millenniummon really believed that the only time he could _ever_ see Ryo was when Ryo wanted to kill him, that there was no alternative to fighting Ryo over and over unless he reordered all of time because Ryo would never accept him unless _everything_ changed, and it hurt.

The pain flared along his bond to Ryo – no, with Millenniummon – and he saw the digicore contract in agony. They shared the same body, so their feelings should affect each other.

His berserk rages, the desire to kill anything that got in his path until he found the threat to Ryo… that had to be Millenniummon's influence. Right?

But that meant the will of Millenniummon's heart was for Monodramon to kill the threat to Ryo. For Monodramon to kill _him._ Did the evil god – did Ryo's partner – really want to die?

He walked closer to the core and touched the elaborate golden swirls of digicode. It was almost a relief to see they were moving, even if they were moving so, so slowly. Like Ryo's heartbeat, like his breathing when he was asleep and wasn't having a nightmare.

They didn't want to let him through, but Millenniummon couldn't keep Monodramon out of his heart, not when they were merged like this. Not back then, when Monodramon had Ryo's help to weaken Millenniummon until he was too exhausted to fight anymore.

The golden code finally parted.

He'd been expecting MoonMillenniummon: that was what Ryo found inside Millenniummon's heart, when he and Ken went in there to try to kill his core so he couldn't come back to life anymore. There was even enough space in here for _Ziyd_ Millenniummon. Instead, there was something much smaller curled up in the distance.

Some kind of dragon Digimon. Not one Monodramon recognized even when he walked closer, not without a digivice. He looked rookie level, about Monodramon's size. His wings and horns were red, but more flame-colored than blood colored, and the rest of him was light blue-green with a white belly.

Monodramon sat on his haunches next to him. He didn't know what to call him, so he had to go with, "Hey, wake up." When there wasn't any response he nudged the Digimon's shoulder, once, then again, a little harder.

"Why are you…?" Millenniummon's rookie form asked, voice soft and slow and tired. Red eyes opened, only the tiniest crack, before drooping shut again. "I don't want to wake up…"

"You don't want to wake up? Ever?" Had he really lost all hope? Digimon that lost all hope were absorbed by Apocalymon, and if he got his hands on a Digimon like ZiydMillenniummon?! The thought made Monodramon shudder. Did they have Apocalymon in this universe, though? He wished he could ask the ENIAC, but without Digidestined besides Ryo, how would they handle Apocalymon breaking loose on top of the D-Reaper?!

"I don't want to go back. Ryo is here, and it's warm. I'm not alone. If I wake up, he'll hate me. Everything will go back to the way it was. I'll be cold again, and empty, and Ryo will hate me."

A pulse of agony, longing, despairing _need_ , the knowledge that the desperate wish would never be granted, despair that wasn't howling because there would be no answer to its cries tore through Monodramon as the digicore convulsed around him. They weren't just sharing a body now: he was inside Millenniummon's heart. It should have been a good thing, he could be sure that the Evil God wasn't lying to him, but it _hurt_.

This was the part of Ryo's enemy that initiated the DNA digivolution while the rest of him raged against it. The part that had sabotaged the Evil God every time he tried to harm Ryo, that was willing to lose _everything_ just to be by his partner's side.

"It's not like that now," the other dragon said, and with their emotions linked felt it comforting even if it wasn't said to comfort Monodramon. "Ryo is with me, even if it's only because he has to be with me to be with you. Our bond is open, and it's _warm_ and I was starving for so long, but now there are _Ryo's_ ," precious, "feelings, and your feelings flowing through me. Please don't make me wake up."

"Ryo needs you," Monodramon said.

That forced red eyes open again, and there were emotions Monodramon would have expected to see on Millenniummon's face only a little less than the peace and contentment there when he focused on his bond with Ryo. "A necessary evil is still an evil. If Ryo needs my power, he will resent it. He must have thought… I wanted him to know… please tell him that I will never bother him again. Please, I just want to stay here," Ryo's enemy, Ryo's partner, the evil god _begged_ him, with nothing in those eyes but need. "Is this… are you here because he wants me to separate?" Please let it not be so. "He wants, he must want to send me away."

"He doesn't have to know you're awake," Monodramon rushed to tell him, feeling that desperation driven by the fear of agonized loneliness grip his own heart. "I don't want Ryo to be scared. We're fighting another god. It's not a human or a Digimon, but it spawned its own realm, just like the ENIAC did."

"A god… A god would possess the power of miracles. A god could hurt Ryo, like I could have hurt Ryo if he wasn't my partner." Shuddering, the small dragon curled up tighter. "Ryo needs me," he whispered, and felt despair instead of hope.

Because to this Millenniummon, Ryo needing him wasn't leverage, something he could use to extort things from Ryo, the way Monodramon had feared. Ryo needing him was a reason he might have to wake up, might have to remind Ryo he existed.

Monodramon winced. "Would you feel Ryo's hate?"

"I've felt it, even when the bond was nothing but a thread. I, I… feeling his hate was better than never seeing him at all. Than never feeling anything. Heated passion at my core, and I didn't care that it burned because it _warmed_. I longed for him to come for me, I was grateful to the Sovereign for sending him to kill me as soon as I woke up, I waited for him to come to me in the future. I'd rather feel his hate than feel him try to suppress our bond. Than be sent away. I long for him, and as long as he lives, I can't die. Sleeping here, connected to his heart… I, I'm happy, and my happiness becomes his happiness."

Love.

"Thank you," the Digimon said, uncurling a little. "For waking me up, at least this much. I felt that we were connected in my dreams, but now I know. I, my happiness can make him happier. My love lets him know in his soul that he is loved, instead of being something that would terrify him and maybe drive him to flee me instead of fight me," meaning he would never see Ryo at all. "My empire, my knowledge, none of it ever mattered. All of it, to find Ryo, but by the time I found him I had forgotten that. I was too twisted to do anything but hurt him. By sealing me, you granted the wish I had when I wore this form, and searched the Digital world for the _something_ I needed like air, the something more precious than chrome digizoid. I'm finally by his side," and it was bliss.

"You love him, but you won't wake up for him? You won't risk his rejection, won't risk what _you_ want, even in order to save his life?"

Red eyes met Monodramon's, searching them for something, and seeing it Dracomon's eyes became empty, a wall slamming down to hide emotions that he couldn't conceal from their shared heart. Silence, and in the silence despair. Not a raging despair, not a denial. Not a scream, not a whimper. Silence. Surrender.

Surrender to the inevitability of heartbreak. Red eyes reopened, and in them was a hint of iron. Something cold and hard, a piece of the will that tried to break all of history apart if that was what it took to be with his partner. Summoned up for only one purpose: "What does Ryo need?"

Monodramon had to hug him. He wondered if it was betraying Ryo, was betraying the ENIAC when Millenniummon tried to kill his creator, but they were DNA Digivolution partners now, and that was something just as real as Monodramon's partnership with Ryo.

No. More real.

"What's your name?" he asked. "Like this."

"Dracomon." There was something curt about the answer. Not quite impatient, but Monodramon claimed it was urgent enough to risk awakening him, and now he wanted… what even? Making _friends?_

"I've never seen a dragon Digimon like you before."

"My evolutionary line was eliminated down to the Petitmon, killed over and over until all of them either mutated and began to take different forms or despaired and became one with Apocalymon." Seeing Monodramon's horror, Dracomon smiled pityingly. "My victims knew that the Machine Emperor kept returning, over and over, and they wanted to finally be free of me, to no longer have to live in fear. Little did they know I'd already reprogrammed my early evolutions to be something less distinctive." He shook his head, still smiling that pitying smile. "Don't empathize with me, Monodramon. Don't try to make friends: I'm not capable of it. It has been thousands of years since I last regretted hurting anyone but Ryo. Don't think it's possible for Ryo to forgive me. No one could forgive me, if they knew everything I've done, and Ryo has such a heroic soul…"

"Ryo's the one who does the impossible, right?"

It should have been mocking laughter, not something that sounded more like sobs… No. That was sobbing, barely disguised. "Hope is one of the cruelest blades in a torturer's arsenal. That too, I know from experience, Monodramon. It is miracle enough that Ryo came to me from the other end of time, that I was ever able to be by his side. To hope for anything more… I would, if only Ryo would enjoy my suffering."

"He wouldn't!"

"I know. I can never be forgiven, because forgiveness requires repentance, and I cannot be sorry for what I have done to anyone but Ryo. I cannot atone by suffering, because Ryo is too pure to enjoy even my pain. I've ripped the scales from my flesh and poured liquid metal in place of my bones for the sake of power, Monodramon. I would do it gladly to remain by his side. I now know what it is to be by his side. I now know what it is to be full instead of empty, warm instead of cold. It is more wonderful than I ever dreamed, and I cannot go back. I cannot go back to living without him, but if he chooses to send me away there's nothing I can do. I can't kill myself, I will always come back to that bleak existence until I need him so much I'd kill an entire world just to make him come to me, just so he'll _look_ at me with some emotion, any emotion, in his eyes." Red eyes smiled. "Don't forget I'm a monster."

Wait a minute. Monodramon folded his arms. "You just want to make sure I keep you sealed away after this."

"Also true."

Amusement and _affection_ , that was what came with those words, and Dracomon – Millenniummon – couldn't know the second was there, not when it undermined what he was trying to do.

It's not the same as how Millenniummon feels about Ryo. The thought that Monodramon is a clever child is less than a flash of lightning in the night in the distance, there and gone but without even the crack of thunder to draw attention to it. Ryo is the endless sea.

How long ago had Millenniummon lost the battle to stay afloat, let his lungs fill with water and sink down into the depths?

It's his love for Ryo that keeps Millenniummon asleep, not Monodramon's seal. Now that Monodramon is quiet again, Dracomon has closed his eyes, and Monodramon can feel how this core pulses in time with Ryo's heart, how Ryo's every breath and dreaming thought soothes the hateful god. Monodramon has never been on an ocean, but that's the only way he can imagine it: looking over the side of some fragile craft to see the evil god adrift in the depths, at the mercy of every current, without the strength or will to struggle for breath or shore. The water that ate away at the shore washing away everything, all the things Millenniummon threw away to be here, thoughts of empire and godhood alike.

A human would drown if they let water fill their lungs, but a water Digimon would feel rejuvenated. Love must be poison to an evil Digimon, he'd seen how it drove Millenniummon to madness, made him _let_ Ryo kill him, but…

Ryo is wonderful, Monodramon knows. So strong, to still be willing to save the ENIAC after everything that happened, everything that drove him to silence. Ryo makes impossible things happen, that's simple fact, so he knows that Ryo could redeem even an Evil God, just like Ryo was the only one who could defeat him.

A war isn't over until the enemy dies or surrenders, and when dying wasn't enough to end the war, even at Ryo's hands, Millenniummon's heart surrendered.

Wait.

He nudged the already-dozing dragon. "Do you still have the power to help Ryo? Are you a god anymore?" Or had that evil power already been washed away?

A snort. "I'm not a god now, but it would be rookie's play to become one again. I know more about the Digital Worlds than Azulongmon's pets could have ever dreamed. Knowledge isn't power, but it puts power at my fingertips. I will gain exactly as much as I have to for Ryo's sake, and no more."

Right, Ryo wouldn't like it if Millenniummon got his full power back, not with what he'd done with it before. "But we're not in our Digital world, or even the human world attacked to our digital world!"

The other dragon rubbed at an eye sleepily with the back of a clawed hand. "I know. We're in the world I created when I wished to change history so that Digimon no longer came into existence bound to humans." So Millenniummon didn't need Ryo like a human needed air. "My armies invaded this world as well as the one where I was born: I captured their greatest minds and stuck dark spores into them so they would analyze this timeline for me and help me obtain the data I needed to create the true history I wished for." He yawned. "How long has it been? What year is it…" Monodramon saw the light of realization, even if it was an 'oh please' moment instead of an 'aha!' moment. "Tell me this isn't the D-Reaper," Dracomon said, sounding annoyed.

"You know about the D-Reaper? Right, you invaded this world in the future, three years from now, and if Takato was still alive to fight you they must have beaten the D-Reaper!"

"Ta- Ah yes, the boy with the Megidramon." Another yawn. "He was alive when I invaded this world, but not for very long. I cloned his remains because his partner attained a divine evolution, even if one barely any stronger than the Sovereign. And because he was a brown-haired boy with a dragon partner, of course. Seeing him killed accidentally by his partner's rage…" Monodramon felt his own chest clench, and knew why Dracomon changed the subject. "You woke me up for something the inhabitants of this timeline can handle _on their own_? If they have Ryo to lead them, there's no way even a world where all the Digimon are ignorant children can possibly fail to survive."

Monodramon put a hand on Dracomon's shoulder and shook it. "But how did they kill it? Don't just say they'll figure it out eventually, you have to know and Ryo's sick of having to go to war and watch Digimon get killed because he can't always pull off a miracle!" Ryo could make things possible, but he couldn't make them _likely_ , and no matter how good a tactician he wasn't all-powerful.

Monodramon didn't know what the Sovereign in their world were _thinking_ , forcing Ryo into orchestrated battles where there was no way out but to let a Digimon sacrifice themselves before sending him to face MoonMillenniummon for a second time. It wasn't as though Ryo didn't know that Digimon were dying, that he couldn't…

Was it meant to convince him that it was necessary to make sacrifices? And who was he supposed to sacrifice? His partner… or himself?

Was that what made Ryo shut down like that? Had he realized that they wanted him to die and take MoonMillenniummon with him… somehow?

And it would seem like they'd gotten their way, when that place blew up and Ryo and the Evil God never came back! Oooooh, Monodramon wanted to go back to the future of his world sometime just to give them a piece of his mind! They were gods and had the responsibility of protecting the Digital World: so? He was a child of the ENIAC, with the exact same responsibility, and he didn't make someone _else_ sacrifice themselves to do what _he_ wanted!

His creator might have made Monodramon knowing that Monodramon would make that choice, but the ENIAC hadn't asked anything of Monodramon he wasn't doing himself. The ENIAC pretended to be the first Digital Computer and the core of the Digital World so MIllenniummon's assassins would come after him instead of Atanasoff-Berry, and they… he…

His creator was barely holding on when Monodramon and Ryo left, and Monodramon didn't know what happened to him afterwards. He was _dying_ , and he'd taken on the task of sending them into the future and keeping history stable enough for that?

"It's not hard," Dracomon said, pushing at Monodramon's hand with a limp paw, still weak from slumber. "I could kill it in an instant as ZiydMillenniummon. Even those insects could figure out some method on their own, you don't need _me_ for this."

"Well, aren't you arrogant, thinking that calling on you to fight another god is overkill." Speaking of killing gods so casually. He'd probably been just as casual and uncaring about sending those clones he'd made to tear apart Monodramon's creator.

"I've been defeating Gods since long before I attained godhood myself. Just being a god doesn't mean anything about how hard an enemy is to kill. The ENIAC, for example, was absolutely helpless once my creations got past its protectors." A tiny yawn, and Dracomon lifted his taloned paw to cover his mouth. "Just because another god and whoever they've gotten to do the actual fighting stands _some_ chance against me doesn't mean that chance might not be a snowball's in hell… Blasted Homeostasis. Blasted Dramon Destroyers… It only worked because the power of miracles is Ryo's power." Resentment was overridden by a moment of longing. "It didn't hurt, I didn't feel it kill me, because my core recognized it… but it wasn't Ryo."

"How dare the protector of the Digital World trick you." Monodramon rolled his eyes and tried to bury his resentment, but if they were already on a tangent…

"You know nothing, you never will since you have no true partner, and I would have killed you for your possession of a treasure you will never truly appreciate. Don't tempt me, I need you intact in order to stay with Ryo," Dracomon grumbled for a moment before finally being helpful, probably so Mondramon would go away. "The D-Reaper was a single entity that dwells in the dimension that in the other timeline is occupied by the Dark Ocean. The main humans that figured out how those with Digimon could go there and attack it were the Monster Maker with the Greymon partner and…" Another yawn. "One of the ones that died before my useless servants could capture them and stick a dark seed into them. Maybe one or two of them, I didn't particularly care. Go there, negate its power, attack a weak point, attack with something it can't guard against, something along those lines. Just _think_ of something; you aren't worthy to stand at Ryo's side if you're going to get intimidated by a god that was killed by a bunch of amateurs. You've stood against _me_ , and the D-Reaper is a brainless creature that does whatever its current programming tells it to do. Just don't let it possess anyone intelligent. "

"It can possess people?"

Dracomon opened an eye to give him a look that said 'really? You haven't already noticed this?' "I'll assume it's only taken Digimon so far, and no one's noticed any increase in intelligence because there wasn't anyone intelligent for it to absorb. If this timeline has an equivalent of Ken Ichijoji, maybe you should feed him to the D-Reaper. He managed to effectively lobotomize the Dark Seed, and that was _my_ programming. How appropriate that the most pathetic Digimon ever had the most pathetic partner ever, and Gennai thinks _that_ was worth summoning to deal with _me?_ "

"Hey, Ken is Ryo's friend, you know!" Monodramon grinned when he felt Dracomon's reaction. "You're _jealous_."

Millenniummon was _huffy_ now. _Millenniummon_! "I'm not capable of friendship. Until I found Ryo, I thought that was a good thing. But you can give Ryo a friend, and hopefully being merged with me will make you a less… a less _insulting_ partner to give Ryo than that Agumon and that Veemon. If I'm part of you, then at least part of you is worthy of him." His tail lashed once. "As long as Ryo is happy, we will continue to follow your evolutionary path. If you are unable to protect Ryo from rage and despair, and his pain fuels a dark digivolution, _I_ will emerge, in all my power, to rewind the clock and annihilate whatever would have caused him that pain. Until and unless that happens, let Ryo enjoy the fruit of his battles, and live a happy life without my shadow hanging over it. The D-Reaper," he scoffed. "It's an embarrassment that someone who stood against _me_ considers a bit of malfunctional code a significant threat, god or no god. Digimon up, you pitiful excuse for a dragon. Are you the ENIAC's agent, created as a worthy partner for the Child of Miracles himself or not? Next you'll come begging for my help to deal with Daemon, Dagomon or _Malomyotismon_."

That… was a worryingly long list. "Who are they?" Monodramon asked.

"A bunch of thieves and copycats who will never have an original idea in their short, pathetic lives," Dracomon growled. "Don't worry, the Digidestined will have _no trouble at all_ with them. The only one who survived to 2004 to be persecuted for copyright infringement was Dagomon, and _he_ survived by having the sense to realize he was outnumbered and cowering in the Dark Ocean."

Daemon, as in Demon? The _Dark Ocean_? And Myotismon, he was the subject of the prophecy about the Child of Light! But Malomyotismon didn't sound familiar: wasn't his mega form VenomMyotismon? So he was going to gain another, more powerful form, like _Millenniummon?!_

"There's no need to be concerned for your creator, Child of the ENIAC," Dracomon told him, solely to make him stop being so easily frightened. "Those three… instead of pursuing their own plans, they decided to go digging through my garbage and then fight each other over a single piece of discarded technology that they were somehow deluded enough to believe would grant them a godhood equal to mine. It would make me despair for the future of evil Digimon if they ever _had_ a future other than as my hacked and brainwashed slaves. I'd show you footage from my dark network," he yawned again, exposing fangs that looked worryingly normal to a dragon like Monodramon – they should have been sharper, larger, more evil, "but I left behind the majority of my stored data to merge with you."

"Are you sure the other Digidestined and our world are going to be okay?"

"Well, it's impossible to overestimate the ability of fools to get themselves killed, but there are no threats to that world worth mentioning."

"You just mentioned three evil Digimon trying to become gods."

"They are worth _mocking_ , not worth mentioning." Dracomon rolled flame-red eyes. "The entire point of this conversation was that the Digimon who sealed me should have more respect for themselves than to consider the Three Stooges and the D-Recycle Bin anything to get worked up about. Certainly not enough to risk disturbing _me._ Has my slumber given you time to _forget_ , Monodramon? Did you mistake silence for weakness?"

"…I did. Forget. I didn't remember anything when I hatched here. I… I don't know about Ryo. The ENIAC thought that you'd traumatized him enough to make him forget everything that happened when he landed in our time, and that was before you told him that it was his partner who made him go through all that! I don't know if Ryo's forgotten, or forgotten again, or he's pretending everything's okay, but if he's forgotten I don't want him to have to remember! I remembered for Ryo's sake, but I want to stop the D-Reaper before he remembers for my sake!"

"Ryo… may have forgotten me?" Dracomon asked slowly, and Monodramon paled. "Ryo, forget our battles?"

The words hung in the air, but the fury Monodramon expected to engulf them never came.

Instead Dracomon sighed. "Almost certainly not. Fate has never been that kind to Ryo. But, if there is any chance… I will wake, and watch through your eyes to see if there is anything I can do to hurry along these primitives. But I won't use my power to help you, or do anything at all that might remind Ryo of my existence."

"You _want_ him to forget?" No, more than that, "What is it that _you_ want, Millenniummon?"

"…You mean if all things were possible, or if I was willing to pay any price?" Dracomon shook his head. "I cannot want anything that Ryo would have to pay the price for, not any longer, and since he is so noble, a cost borne by the world would wound his soul. So, then, the only thing that I can wish for is to sleep at Ryo's side, while he lives a long, happy life as humans count such things. And, in the end, when at last he dies, our bond will anchor my dreaming soul to his drowning one, and I will be pulled with him wherever he goes, even into nonexistence."

"So you do want to die," Monodramon said in a quiet voice.

"I am thousands of years old, child. I searched, without any idea what _for_ , if there was _anything_ out there worthwhile, worth _living_ for, and yet I could not die. When I finally found the one I searched for, I found that my search had rendered me unable to be with him. If I am dead, I will never have to fear waking again to find myself alone. You do not understand because you are not Ryo's partner. You will never know what it is to cry alone in the desert night, searching the empty places of the world because seeing people together _gnaws_ you down to the bone, centimeter by centimeter,and you know not why. When I realized that Ryo was my partner, my life began to make _sense_ , and at first it filled me with manic hope but then, oh, what a terrible clarity it brought. Truth is almost as cruel a blade in a torturer's hand as hope. When Ryo dies, you will mourn the loss of a priceless treasure, dragon child, but you will never understand my feelings. Without Ryo, there is nothing in existence for me but agony. To fall asleep once again, knowing that Ryo is happy, that my beloved treasure is well cared-for, and never again exist without him, not even for a moment… There is nothing else I _can_ wish for."

"Like you thought battling Ryo eternally was the best you could have before we merged?" Monodramon asked him, annoyed and worried. "You're linked to Ryo! What if you make him suicidal!"

"I am _happy,_ little dragon." Dracomon got to his feet, shaking out his body, tail and wings stretching. "I am happy enough it overflows," the red-eyed dragon said, and smiled as the light of digivolution enveloped him.

The name that resounded in their shared mind was _Coredramon_.

For humans, who didn't have cores, would that translate to Souldramon? Or even Heartdramon.

"Blue," Coredramon commented idly, folding in one of his wings to look at the back of it. His eyes and horns were still red. "It's been so long I wondered if I was mistaken, and it was always green…"

"I thought you said you weren't going to get more powerful than you had to!"

The great head bent down to look at him, clearly despairing for the younger generation. "It's only a champion." How was that becoming powerful? Settling back onto his haunches, he said, "I believe I have worn out my tolerance for children failing to grasp the point. Regardless, I needed an adult form's maturity to not just fall back asleep…" Red eyes unfocused, and Monodramon, wanting to know what he was thinking, what he felt, could feel him focusing his awareness on his, _their_ bond with Ryo. "He's worried… Once I dreamed of fighting alongside him," and oh, it still did hurt to know that those dreams could never be, "but I'll settle for ensuring that my treasure is… secure." Well guarded, but also aware he was safe. Scaled brow ridges rose, looking down at Monodramon. "I just told you that he was worried. Go. Wake up and cuddle him or something. Do you _want_ me to start asking what I keep you around for?"

Even if the size of a champion was nothing next to Millenniummon, Coredramon's mouth was still more than large enough to bite his head off, Monodramon was made very aware as the elder dragon rose and took a step forward to look down at him, those teeth near his face. "I'm, I'm not afraid of you!" Monodramon said, drawing on every memory of being Cyberdramon and _wanting_ to fight.

" _That's_ better," Coredramon said. "You awoke the sleeping dragon, cub. It would be… _remiss_ of me to not make sure you regret it."

"As long as Ryo is safe, and everyone survives so he isn't sad, I won't regret anything!"

"An impossible request, when Digimon that die here don't come back to life."

Digimon…

"What, what do you mean?" Monodramon asked, eyes wide.

"There's no link to the human collective unconscious here to anchor Digimon. No Primary Village. The majority of the time when their data is loaded, it's too scrambled for them to ever come back to life as themselves again, and if they are deleted or their data isn't loaded, they die permanently."

They die.

He'd always loaded their data, to get stronger, to kill whatever was threatening Ryo, but 'the majority' of them, "Dead? D-dead?"

"As long as Ryo lives, I cannot die. I wanted a world where Digimon could choose their fates. Here, they are not bound to humans, or to existence. And so, they die. …And you were unaware." The dragon sighed, and a great taloned hand knocked Monodramon over, rolling the smaller dragon under him for Coredramon to settle around him. "I need you feeling well enough to support Ryo. My experience with guilt is limited, and I can't see any similarity behind killing worthless Digimon and upsetting Ryo, so none of it is applicable."

"Hey, what are you doing?" Monodramon shoved at him. "Let me go!"

"Ryo still loves you. It's why our bond is still open. Listen, realize that nothing matters next to that, then go wake up and be there for Ryo. If he sees you upset, he'll be upset."

"But I killed Digimon!" Millenniummon wouldn't lie about something like that, not when he didn't give a damn about it.

A sigh in the great chest next to his body. "Perhaps it's caring about everything all the time that makes the rest of you so stupid and pathetic. Caring about _one_ person is enough to make me let rebels retake three continents while I send him gift-wrapped victims, I don't _want_ to imagine what caring about more than one... Mmm, no, evil Digimon are just as bad as the rest of you."

Monodramon had to giggle at how wrong that was, how wrong all of this was. "I killed innocent Digimon."

"In _this_ world? Were they babies?"

"No."

"Then no such thing. In this world, it's almost impossible for a Digimon to survive without killing, _forget_ Digivolve. Did they have human partners?"

"No."

"Then you killed killers. If that helps," Coredramon said, sounding bored, since really they wouldn't know. "Your guilt is disturbing. I haven't hurt Ryo lately. I gave up my autonomy to not hurt Ryo anymore."

This giggle he managed to block by holding his paws in front of his mouth. "Right, you'd only feel guilty if you hurt Ryo." So when Millenniummon felt Monodramon's guilt, it would make him feel like he'd hurt Ryo.

Ryo.

Pearl with a price far beyond the death of any single living creature, rose with such terrible thorns, the light that killed. Brilliant and hard as diamond, the shining gem that bore through armor.

Glorious destroyer. So small and yet so powerful, so delicate and so devastating. Child of Miracles, bearer of the thunderbolts, vessel of the wrath of every god.

Could he blame them that they flocked to worship him, to be chosen as blessed vessels of his power? No, but oh could he envy them. How he longed to hold Ryo in his grasp, coil around him jealously, place him among the greatest treasures of four worlds so he could outshine them all, and those lesser beings could only gaze in awe.

Monodramon should have either been stunned that Millenniummon was being this sappy, even if it really wasn't unprecedented when he'd called Ryo his beloved, or worried that Millenniummon had figured out that by focusing on an emotion he could manipulate Monodramon's emotions, but Monodramon really couldn't help wanting to purr. He _was_ a dragon, and Ryo _was_ wonderful. Quiet and shattered and hurt when Monodramon found him, but so brave, letting himself get hurt again to protect them, even knowing in his heart what was coming and how _could_ anyone damage such a treasure?

Ryo needed to be protected. That was why Monodramon wanted to be his partner, because protecting was what partners _did_ , and he wanted to protect Ryo.

That was what let them DNA digivolve, wasn't it? It had to be, he didn't have anything else in common with Millenniummon. The desire to end Ryo's pain. The wish to protect him, above all else, no matter what the cost. No matter what sacrifice was demanded of them, in exchange for Ryo's peace.

A great gust of hot air, the sigh of an elder dragon. "Careful, dragon child. I stilled my heart for Ryo's sake, and did it gladly. If our hearts begin to beat as one, then your heart will also beat for Ryo's sake and his sake alone."

"I want to be his partner."

Silence, and the knowledge that he'd said something ridiculous. No evolution of Millenniummon was going to care what he wanted. "If you died," Coredramon said, in a tone that proclaimed that he was speaking to an utter fool, _"Ryo will be sad_. It is one thing to choose death when I am thousands of years old, have exhausted all my other options and am quite thoroughly evil, but you are what, two? How will you tell Ryo that you have traded six thousand years for a mere sixty? _Do you think I created a world where Digimon had the right to choose without reason?_ Do you want to _throw away the freedom I never possessed and choose agony instead?!"_


	2. Chapter 2

_For a destined bond creature/partner bond to be used_ offensively _against someone in order to break them is pretty darn evil._

 _So it's nice to have a character who is evil enough to thoroughly deserve it._

 _Monodramon feels bad for him, but Monodramon is an angel, by some definitions literally._

* * *

"Ryo." A familiar clawed hand nudged his shoulder.

"Un… Monodramon?"

"No," Monodramon's voice growled, and Ryo was instantly awake.

Those narrowed eyes… Not Monodramon.

"What have you done to him?!"

"What is he about to do to himself! Talk sense into that dragon child of yours! He wants to shorten his lifespan by thousands of years! Do something about him so I can go back to sleep!"

"Monodramon's in danger… Why do you care?"

"Because he needs to use me to do this to himself, and if I was involved in his early death, that would be one more thing you'd never forgive me for." Ryo didn't respond immediately, and watching him the irritation in those eyes subsided, emotions began to show in them that weren't Monodramon's, and a moment after that really sunk in Monodramon's body flinched. "He's the one that woke me up," Millenniummon said defensively. "I will return to my sealed slumber, Ryo. For your happiness, I will do it gladly. I will still my heart once again, and sleep until the end of my world."

It would have been nice if he didn't remember enough to know what that meant. "And what will you do once I'm no longer around to stop you?"

"…I'm only immortal as long as you are alive, Ryo. When you die, I will go with you, but Monodramon is a child. You would be sad if he died so young for your sake."

"Die young?" Was that a threat.

"Young for a Digimon. Monodramon could live for _thousands of years_. If he does what he wants to do, he'll die when we die. I knew that you would want the chance to stop him."

"What's in this for you?"

Monodramon chuckles, and it shouldn't be so dark, coming from him. There shouldn't be any note of despair, either. "Of course you understand me, my…" He stops himself, fortunately. "You would be sad, if you knew he was going to die because he loves you, and I don't want you to be sad. You know that you are the only thing that matters to me."

Ryo sighed. "I know," he admitted, feeling tired. "Let me talk to Monodramon."

Yellow eyes closed, and then Monodramon's body jerked, startled.

"Is it really you, Monodramon?"

"He really talked to you because he was worried about _me_? I thought he wouldn't risk reminding you that he was still here!"

"Monodramon, what was that about?"

Monodramon looked guilty. "I wanted to find a way to help you with the D-Reaper, so I went looking for him inside my head for the first time. His digicore was slowed down so much he was practically stopped. I made him wake up and help us. He didn't want to because he didn't want you to know he still existed because you wouldn't feel safe then. He wanted to stay asleep until you died and go with you. I said that you wouldn't be happy if the fighting reminded you of all the fighting you had to do before, and… things, and he said that he'd watch and see if he could think of anything that would help, but he wouldn't gather the power he'd need to destroy the D-Reaper himself because you wouldn't like that. While we were talking, he told me that there wasn't a Primary Village in this universe, and I got really upset, and he didn't know how to make me feel better except by… talking about you. And I said I wanted to be your partner just like he was, and he said that if I made my heart beat in time with his, then my heart would stop when your heart stopped too. I said I didn't mind, but he got upset that you would be upset."

"I bet he just wanted to be my only real partner… but that too, Monodramon. You're… Since he told me that as long as I was alive he'd just come back to life, I've… but you're just a kid," Ryo said, with no awareness of any irony, "and you've been a great partner to me, Monodramon. I don't want you to end up any worse off because of me than you already have. You had to merge with _Millenniummon_. Once we're dead, you could have your life back."

"I want to stay with you and protect you!"

"I shouldn't need any more protecting when I'm gone, Monodramon." At least he hoped not, with Millenniummon planning to go after him. "If you're willing to stay with me for the rest of my life… I'd be happy, but I don't want… I don't want having met me to cost you more than it already has."

* * *

Biomerge digivolution is having his soul wrapped in a big, warm, fluffy towel.

Monodramon is there with him, around him, loving him and worrying about him and wanting to protect them, but there's another presence, a (safely) mindless one. It would be one thing to have a person he can't trust touching him like this, it's another when it's, well, like a towel that someone warmed and left for him. Lingering sentiment instead of someone _watching_ him, calculating how this will affect him.

Draped around him is love, and happiness just to be with him, just that he exists, and utter selflessness, all for his sake. There's nothing more self-sacrificing than the sacrifice of self.

There's no change in the level of those feelings as they fight, or even when the biomerge begins or ends. Not enough awareness to even notice that their bond is suddenly that much stronger.

The dragon is really sleeping. They're safe, he and Monodramon are safe.

He's not tempted to ruin this by waking Millenniummon. He knows that even if these are Millenniummon's true feelings, they aren't _all_ his feelings. Millenniummon put his mind and soul into standby mode, all of it damn near shut down except the feelings he wanted to give as gifts to Ryo. This is his wish, his offering, what he would be for Ryo if he could, and Ryo isn't going to ruin it for him, reject the gift Millenniummon gave up mind and will to grant him, by throwing it away and instead asking things of Millenniummon he's not capable of.

It's beautiful, and it's part of why he can't really take the D-Reaper threat seriously. He knows it's dangerous, but when the fear that he's lived under even while he didn't remember is finally gone, it's hard for fear of the D-Reaper to override that surge of relief.

Monodramon loves him as a dear friend, but Millenniummon loves him as a river loves the sea. Millenniummon's love is an inevitability, and maybe that's messed up, but it means they don't have to be afraid anymore. The evil god is caged, and everything's going to be okay.

It's not what Tai and the others had. It's not Ken and sweet little Wormmon. Millenniummon is ancient and twisted and evil, but with Monodramon there to be the friend Millenniummon can't, it's closer to perfect than he could have imagined. It's hard not to laugh and be giddy, but he's used to being professional even when Digimon have just died for him and he's miserable, so he can handle this. He can do this, he's fought in four wars before, what's a fifth one that's not against his partner? With his partners by his side?

And then they're ripped away.

And he really has to wonder how many of their abilities he shares with his destined partner, because he can see the future. If he can't get to the digital world before Millenniummon wakes up and goes crazy?

* * *

Millenniummon was still asleep, curled up as Dracomon again, but for how long?

Red eyes just stared at him. "Ryo must appreciate you for your loyalty, not for your brains. Did the ENIAC never explain true partner bonds to you? Of course not, the ENIAC was a _responsible_ god, he wouldn't taunt you with what you could never have. Time, space, alternate timelines, cleaving dimensions in two: none of these were ever enough to sever my bond with Ryo. Thousands of years before I met him, the first thread of it was there, _pulling_ at my core. Even with Ryo in another world, I can feel that he lives. I can feel that he is concerned for us. That he wants us – well, you I'm sure – with him." Joy – bitterness – longing in quick succession in that last sentence. "His thoughts are full of us, his heart longs to be reunited with us. I… I wanted to see Ryo again so much I never cared if it killed me…" Dracomon's child form's voice was broken. "I wanted him to… his feelings…" Painful, agonized bliss that made Monodramon shudder as it wracked their shared body. "He _wants_ us to go to him, Monodramon. Will he, will he be angry if I obey?"

Dracomon shuddered. "He won't like it. I would need to regain my power, but, but _Ryo_ …" It wasn't that something pierced the heart they shared: it was _already_ pierced, and the old wound where Ryo and Dracomon's souls were bound together ached. "I tried, oh I tried, but I cannot deny him."

 _Yoursyoursyours (it hurts) I love you (it hurts) I longed to hear you call for me (you called for me every second of every day and I could never find you and it drove me to madness) yours (until all I could want was for it to stop) I need you needloveneed (only) you I must love you or hate you and I tried, oh I tried to hate you but my hatred hurt you and I cannot hurt you (I cannot bear it) so I must love you (yours because you will never be mine)._

Pain, so much _pain_ , tearing through them, tearing them apart and it was when they began to settle into a new configuration, the shape crafted as a vessel for the soul who had never known anything but this agony until it became normal, simply the nature of life and the Digital World, that Monodramon realized why Millenniummon had let this storm engulf them, let these feelings and memories rise up even though _it hurt_.

Dark digivolution.

Claws of energy that were no longer Monodramon's tore at the real world sphere above them, but that wasn't necessary – it was ZiydMillenniummon's very existence, the unsealed sheer power of the evil god of space and time that tore through the dimensions, tore them _apart_ to reach Ryo.

Ryo who was _oh my beloved killer, come to me and end my agony until I rise again and must wait for you to come to me again_. _Now you call for me, promising your blessing oh sweet god of death (Seraphimon is the least among your servants and yet I must_ envy _the Protector of Hope)._

A city beneath them and _the real world is so fragile and cannot be restored – Ryo would be angry if my radiating power scythed this city clean of life_. _He will be angry as it is, I must sleep or he will hate me_ …

Bodiless, ZiydMillenniummon had no more need to regard gravity than he did any other power but Ryo's.

Monodramon, on the other hand, didn't even have wings.

And Dracomon's looked too small to fly in the real world even if the other rookie's eyes weren't closed.

Monodramon screamed as he fell. The good news was that there were some things not that far below him. The bad news was that they were _helicopter bladesow_.

The helicopter swooped after Ketomon, and the next thing he knew he'd been grabbed and pulled inside the helicopter. "Where's Dracomon!?" he asked, wriggling and squeaking as loud as he could to be heard over the blades.

"Ketomon?" Ryo recognized him, and Ketomon recognized the digi-egg in Ryo's arms even though he'd never seen it before.

"That!" Ketomon sighed. "He's probably used to being immortal and not having to care about gravity, but what about me?" Ketomon was an ordinary Digimon who would die if he fell from the height of a skyscraper… Except he was Ryo's partner, wasn't he? And Ryo made things possible.

Ryo wouldn't let him die.

He could just see Dracomon sighing and scolding him, because didn't he realize his own power and position? It was disrespectful to Ryo, to not realize the power Ryo's favor granted him… or something like that.

Ryo was holding out his arms for Ketomon, looking at Tally with the egg tucked under one arm. "He's definitely my partner," he said, and Tally handed Ketomon over.

Ryo didn't put the egg down to hug Ketomon. Instead, he squished them together, and Ketomon would have to tell Millenniummon that when he woke up. Because he did sort of owe him, for letting him be with Ryo again.

…and no one had saved Dracomon when he fell. He might have come back to life because of Ryo, but had it hurt when he went splat?

In baby form, the thought was enough to make Ketomon start sniffling. "I'm sorry," Ryo said. "I should have found some way to get to you sooner, but they were watching me after I found the first two dimensional weak points."

"We, we could feel that you wanted to see us again!" and that was enough to force out a flood of tears. "I missed you, Ryo! I missed you so much!"

It was Ketomon's flood of emotion that gave the egg the power to hatch, and now there was a warm blue squishy ball pressed up against Ketomon and crying too.

"It hurts, it hurts…" little dragon wings wrapped around Ketomon and whimpered.

"Please don't hate him Ryo! He was asleep, I woke him up because I wanted to see you!" Ketomon said, wrapping his belly around Petitmon.

The other baby pressed into him. "Please please, I want to go back, Ryo hates me!" A muffled wail.

Ketomon looked up to see Ryo's eyes soften, because even if this one was a cruel mass-murderer, Ryo took good care of baby Digimon. He rocked them and the wails began to subside into whimpers. Petitmon convulsed once and then just trembled against Ketomon's side as Ketomon continued to look at Ryo pleadingly.

"You won't be able to DNA Digivolve again until the two of you are rookies," Ryo said, and sighed. "I guess we'll have to go to the digital world so you two can start absorbing data."

"I want to go back to being part of Ketomon," the other baby Digimon said, voice muffled because he was pressed against his digivolution partner, "because you love Ketomon and you won't ever love me."

"No, no," Ketomon said, wrapping around him again. "Don't be sad, I'll be sad and Ryo will be sad. Think about how much you love Ryo and go to sleep." Oh! Ryo must be mad because they'd fallen out of the sky separately and Millenniummon was immortal and Monodramon wasn't. What if he thought Petitmon had tried to kill Ketomon? "You knew I'd be okay, right?"

Petitmon squirmed around a little so he could look at Ketomon and blink at him.

"When you stopped being ZiydMillenniummon."

More blinking. "I was Ziyd-Me and I thought that Ryo wouldn't like it, that I was powerful and in control, so I went back to sleep and then I was an egg again and when I hatched I was Petitmon and awake instead of being part of Ketomon." A wing poked at him as the former evil god of time looked at him imploringly. "Why are you over there? You wanted to see Ryo, and I did that for you, so why am I alone in my head except for Ryo being angry with me?" Petitmon sniffled.

"I'm sorry!" Ketomon said, sniffling too. "I didn't mean for us to separate!" Keeping them DNA Digivolved was his job! "Don't be sad, it's my fault! He wasn't being bad, Ryo!" Ketomon said, looking up at their partner pleadingly.

"I'm sorry… Petitmon," Ryo said, and used his right forearm to squish them both against his chest while he fished in one of his pants pockets. Looking around for a chair, he sat down and put them on his lap so he could unwrap the candy bar.

The first piece was held in front of Petitmon, who just looked up at it. "Come on, open up," Ryo said cajolingly.

Sniffle. Another sniffle, as Ketomon realized what this would mean to Petitmon, who had _never_ been given a treat by his partner, and yes, there he went, sobbing again.

Ketomon nudged him with his body. "Open up," he said, and Petitmon did, almost automatically, eyes scrunched closed as he cried.

At least he was quieter now, with something in his mouth: he wouldn't want to open his mouth and risk it escaping, when Ryo _gave him something_ , and so Ketomon's partner shook instead, almost falling off Ryo's knees if Ryo hadn't pushed him back into place.

"I'm not angry," Ryo said softly. "You didn't hurt anyone," he glanced at Ketomon, who nodded. "The portal's staying open, and Beelzemon brought everyone else their partners. You did good."

"It was a dark digivolution, Ryo," Ketomon tried to whisper, pushing himself up against Ryo's chest a bit to be closer to Ryo's ears in case that would help Petitmon not hear him. "He-He had to think about sad things, and make himself feel really horrible and like you hated him and everything would always hurt and would never be okay so it would happen. I think he's still all cut up inside from it."

Ryo winced. "Yeah, I know how that goes…" When the memories woke up, when he couldn't push everything away anymore. "If he's raw like that… That's why I tell you not to comfort me sometimes, Ketomon. Because having a partner there telling me it's okay to cry will set off more tears than just the memories, when I'm trying to get everything back under control." He held another piece of chocolate against Ketomon's mouth.

Mmm, yummy. Ketomon's entire body wriggled when the taste hit his tongue.

"Are you guys okay? Who's the Petitmon?" Henry asked, recognizing Ketomon as Monodramon's baby form.

"He just hatched, and everything's a bit overwhelming," Ryo said, holding a finger to his lips. "When a baby Digimon gets like this, you need to keep things calm and quiet for them until they can calm down. I probably messed up by giving him chocolate."

"Yeah," Henry agreed. "You really don't want to overstimulate a toddler having a meltdown, even with good stimuli."

"Uh-huh," Terriermon agreed, shuddering.

"Come on, Terriermon, we can introduce ourselves later."

As Henry walked away Ryo started to pet them both, just gently, with a rhythm, squishing the two of them together a little. Petitmon was warm.

Ketomon closed his eyes. Awhile later more chocolate was held in front of where his nose would be, and he opened his mouth for it and murmured, "FanksReeo," because the ENIAC raised him to be polite. There were sounds around him, but he was too tired after being dragged into a dark digivolution and knocked down to baby by helicopter rotors to really register what they were saying when Ryo was here petting him and Petitmon was really warm.

Dimly, he did register being picked up, and rocking movements as Ryo walked somewhere.

"Two of them?" he did hear, because he recognized Ryo's dad's voice. A larger hand on his head woke him up a little more, enough to register, "Well, I guess they're a lot more tolerable when they're not pressing every button in my car while I'm trying to drive."

It was nice to hear a laugh from Ryo that mostly wasn't fake.


	3. Chapter 3

When he woke up, he was back to Hopmon. Blinking, he looked around, shaking himself to get out from under the blanket. Where was Petitmon?

It took a bit of effort to move his body to look up without any arms or legs, but when he did he saw a green seahorse with its body wrapped in some kind of cloth floating in midair, the end of its long white tail tied to the bedframe to keep it from being pushed around the room by any random gust. Tilting where his ears would be towards the Babydmon, he heard soft, sleeping breaths.

Hopmon hopped down out of the bed to go looking for Ryo.

The door had been carefully positioned so it wouldn't latch, so he was able to push it open without needing thumbs or having to hop up to reach the door handle.

Two heads turned to see him when he made his way to the living room. "Hey," Ryo said. "So the smell of food did wake you up. Do I need to go untie Babydmon?"

"He's still asleep," Hopmon said, but Ryo stood up anyway.

"I should move him in here, even if I'm worried about the fan," Ryo said thoughtfully. "I don't want him to wake up tied up in an empty room." Ryo scooped up Hopmon as he walked back through the hall, and put him down on the bed while he tied the long hairs of Babydmon's tail around his wrist like balloon strings. Picking Hopmon up again, he tucked Hopmon against his side to tug down on Babydmon's tail so he didn't hit his head or his horns against the doorframe.

The movement made the cloth wrapped around him flutter open. "Is that a cape?" Hopmon asked.

"It's a pillowcase. He digivolved while you guys were under the blankets and lifted them up, and since he's not quite as warm as Petitmon was I wanted to keep him warm. I tied it around his neck so it'd stay on," Ryo explained. "If I'm lucky…" he laughed at the idea. It wasn't a happy laugh and Hopmon snuggled into his side in hope it'd help. "Sorry. If we're lucky, you two will turn back into rookies on your own without the three of us having to go grind some levels. It might work that way even here, right?" Where partner bonds were different.

Hopmon nodded. "That would be good. I didn't know that Digimon stayed dead here." He shuddered.

Registering Ryo's watchful silence, Hopmon added, "Dracomon was the one who told me, the first time I talked to him. He not interested in killing Digimon." What worried him was, "He's not interested in anything except you, really. He just wants to sleep until you die and that kills him, and that can't be good for you, Ryo."

"What's this about someone dying?" Ryo's father asked, arms folded, and Hopmon winced.

"One of my partners is a little…" Ryo paused, acting as though he didn't want to say it more because it was personal and not his personal thing to tell. "He stays merged with Hopmon – Monodramon – so he's not a danger to himself." And others. Mainly others, but they didn't want to worry Ryo's father. "It's dangerous for Digimon in the Digital World. The Monster Makers programmed them to get data to evolve by killing other Digimon. That's why the older Digimon didn't like humans: they thought we were pretty evil, and with good reason. The Monster Makers were trying to make _people_ , and who programs people to kill each other?

"I'm perfectly safe out there since I don't have any data to consume and a lot of them want human partners so they can get stronger without having to kill other Digimon, but way too many Digimon had to do some nasty things just to survive," Ryo said, glancing over at Babydmon. "That's part of why I have to get back there, Dad. The other Tamers killed the Devas, and they were the closest thing the Digital World had to a police force. The D-Reaper probably destroyed most of the towns I used to keep an eye on, and what it didn't destroy Digimon who needed the data to fight the D-Reaper probably did. Even though the D-Reaper's gone now, the Sovereign used Calumon to digivolve hundreds or even thousands of Digimon to mega without anyone checking to see what kind of person they were first. A lot of them are going to want even more power in case the D-Reaper comes back. Baby Digimon and in-training Digimon like these two must be getting _slaughtered_ right now. Heck, even rookies and champions – they're just as weak as babies compared to a mega. I haven't been trying to run away just to get away from you: I _have_ to get to the Digital World because I can't just sit back when innocent people are being killed!"

"…You've changed so much, Ryo. I remember when all you wanted to do was fool around in chatrooms and with your cards all day. I guess I wanted to believe that it was just more of the same, that you were just running away from reality when you should be focusing on important things like your grades."

Ryo pulled out his deck with his free hand and fanned it out. "To you, these cards are just pieces of paper, and I guess they were to me back then too. But now, it's the homework that's just a piece of paper, and tests that are just games that don't _mean_ anything real. I've been doing a _job_ for over a year, Dad. I had people counting on me, even if most of them are probably dead now. That just makes it more important. The entire geography of the Digital World has changed, the safe routes and safe areas must be entirely different, and none of the kids' Digimon have any idea if anyone's started mapping yet!"

"The geography's dangerous?" So Ryo was lying about being safe there?

"Not the way it is in the real world – you're not going to get thirsty in a Digital World desert. But some areas have more data streams than others, there are stable and unstable passages to different areas of the Digital World that some baby could blunder into and end up getting dumped somewhere near the human world when that area's full of data hunters trying to get enough strength to get into our world… The oldest Digimon alive are _sixteen_ , Dad. They're all just kids, and it's probably the oldest and most responsible ones that took point against the D-Reaper. They looked up to me and Cyberdramon because compared to most of them, we were _adults_. They _counted_ on us, and I went along with those other kids to the human world just to make sure they could get back safely and got _stuck_ here when they needed me!"

The man gave Ryo a bleak look, and Hopmon could see the resemblance between the two of them now. "You've seemed like a completely different person since you came back."

That was because Ryo _was_ a completely different person. This wasn't their timeline. Ryo wasn't this man's Ryo. Hopmon didn't know what happened to this world's Ryo. The ENIAC wouldn't have gotten rid of him so Ryo would have a family here or anything like that, and they came here way before the year 2004 so it probably wasn't Millenniummon's fault.

"You grew up, and I missed it," the man said, and well, that was part of it.

Monodramon hadn't met Ryo until after he'd already fought three wars, mainly by himself. He didn't have any idea what Ryo was like when he was a kid instead of a Chosen Child, before he was summoned to do what only he could do as a Digidestined.

"You ran away and fought the D-Reaper! You didn't come back home even when the other kids came home, and all I got was Tally calling me to let me know that you'd been caught on some camera fighting that thing, so at least you were still alive! For now! Takato said that even when you _did_ sleep with the others so you had some backup if you were attacked while you were asleep, you were gone before any of them woke up!"

"Hey, I did get enough sleep, and I ate," Ryo said. "I know what I'm doing," even if food wasn't a necessity to keep Digimon in combat condition in _this_ Digital World. "Look, I know that you're my father, and so I shouldn't be throwing out ultimatums, but the bottom line is that every day I'm stuck here, _people are dying_ who could have lived, and I don't want that blood on my hands. If you try to keep me here, and I have to sit there in class _every day_ knowing that _people are dying_ while I sit there uselessly because you don't care about hundreds of innocent people, at some point I'm never going to speak to you again."

"Fine, if that's what it takes…!"

"You can't," Ryo said, eyes hard and focused. Monodramon rarely saw him like this. When he first met Ryo, Ryo's eyes were empty and always just a little unfocused, going through the motions because the ENIAC needed him to or else all of reality was going to be destroyed so Millenniummon could have things his way. He was just _going through the motions_ , but even Ryo on autopilot was insanely skilled compare to the inhabitants of a newborn digital world – Ryo came from the future and knew battle techniques and strategies that were the fruit of _thousands of years_ of Digital warfare. The Digimon of this world only had sixteen years to figure out what they could do, and even the Sovereign barely understood that there _was_ a metagame.

But once upon a time, Ryo was just a kid hauled in to fight the person who developed half of those strategies. Once upon a time, he would have had to focus, learn and learn _fast_ , because Agumon's partner was in the hands of an evil Digimon that experimented on Digimon and turned them into brainwashed cyborgs, and Agumon's partner's little sister was in the hands of the Digimon who invaded Odaiba.

"You can't keep me here." Monodramon had only seen Ryo look like this when he was face-to-face with Millenniummon and the D-Reaper. "Hypnos can't keep me here either, no matter how many dates you go on with Dr. Onodera."

Oh? Ryo had explained what dates were when someone explained to them how partnerships with human 'Tamers' worked here: instead of everyone having destined partners like in their world, Digimon had to try to find someone suitable to be their partner, and dates were how humans figured out if other humans were suitable to be their partner.

Partnerships were really really big things, so if Ryo's dad was just pretending he wanted another human to be his partner just so she'd help him keep Ryo in the human world, that was just wrong!

"You know it's not like that," Ryo's dad protested, starting to look a little angry.

…Oh, Hopmon realized.

It was still two years away, but eventually they would be able to go back to their own world. They might even have to go back, depending. If Ryo just vanished, then this man might think his son had died, even if he probably wouldn't figure out that his son had been dead all along if he hadn't figured it out after a year with another world's Ryo. But if Ryo had _already_ vanished, been alive and well and spotted rarely in the Digital world for years, and Ryo's father didn't _want_ to see him again?

If that was what Ryo thought was best, Hopmon shouldn't interfere, but… it was sad. "Ryo, is that really what you want?" he asked sadly, thinking of the ENIAC and how he wouldn't see him again even if they did go back to their time. Not unless they time-traveled to the years where the ENIAC was operational, could think and communicate instead of being nothing but the foundation the Digital World rested upon. …if the ENIAC's self had even lived long enough for its body to be destroyed, instead of being finished off by the effort of sending them to the future…

"No…" Ryo said, letting out an annoyed sigh, looking away from both of them. "This is how the other kids felt, when they realized they'd been lied to and used to lie to me and Digimon were _dead_ because of that little game they went along with, and I've had to keep lying every day for months…" Looking back to face his father, he said, "Remember the in-depth background checks for the Hypnos 'internship program?' I failed it. Nobody at my elementary school remembered talking to me, just that there was some kid named Ryo Akiyama who got good grades. They let me in anyway, but only after they had your doctor prescribe you some extra bloodwork so they could snag a vial.

"Remember Tally trying to get you to reminisce about my childhood? You said, you _thought_ you'd never gone to amusement parks or anything with me because you were working all the time, but didn't that seem _wrong_ to you? That we didn't have _any_ special memories together, that there wasn't anything that came to your mind? I know you didn't think that was how you _should_ have been acting all along, because I didn't have a day to myself for _two months_ afterwards! We're genetically related, but you're not my dad and you never had a son. 'Mom was an illegal immigrant' – it _would_ work as a cover story, if Hypnos and ECHELON weren't looking into it. The Mom you remember never existed, and _my_ Mom was Japanese. I'm from an alternate universe, my Dad was an alternate version of you, and after I fought… something like the D-Reaper in my universe I couldn't go home to _my_ family, I had to get thrown into another universe and someone gave me 'a' Dad as some kind of _consolation prize_.

"And I couldn't run away into the digital world because people were _following_ me and wouldn't let me go through the Digital fields, and I couldn't just live on the street until that died down because Yamaki warned me that some of the observers from foreign governments had _noticed_ that I could 'detect' where Digital fields were about to appear better than even his equipment and if I ran away someone would use that as an opening to turn 'ran away' into 'kidnapped,' and if they figured out I kept showing up where digital fields were about to show up not because I had 'unique intel on the Digital world' after living there for so long but because I'm _magic_ and _made_ those fields happen _?_

"Oh, I'd get out of whatever lab they stuck me in eventually, but I'm," he laughed, "'lucky,' not invulnerable like _someone_. I can make openings for things to happen, but I can't undo things like getting my arm and leg messed up or getting pumped full of drugs. And if some country turned me into a vegetable! I've already had enough people die or get brainwashed because of me, I'm not having millions of people probably getting _nuked_ because raising a Digimon army to slaughter them all would take too long on my conscience!"

A hollow laugh. "I used to think the invasion of Odaiba was some kind of exciting mystery, I mean, real monsters, people all over the world saw the tears in the sky and there wasn't any real explanation? Then…" Ryo raised his hand to cover his face, shoulders shaking.

"I'm sorry!" Hopmon said, feeling _awful_. Was this how Millenniummon felt, realizing that Ryo was so torn up inside because of _him_ and what he said? What happened because of him.

"I want to go _home_ ," Ryo said, emphatic and yet it was somehow empty. Those words were the truth and yet they were still meaningless, pointless. "I miss my Mom and Dad, but even after the first time I fought Millenniummon, I couldn't feel safe there anymore, knowing that things like him were out there, things even the Digidestined who beat Apocalymon couldn't fight. Time got torn apart, Monodramon, and the ENIAC said I couldn't go home because of the paradoxes, but what if he just didn't want to tell me that home didn't exist anymore? Millenniummon tore time apart: what if Mom and Dad were part of what got wiped out of existence because I couldn't pull myself together and hurry up and stop him? What if my family is gone because I wasn't good enough? I couldn't even go back to the future long enough to save Ken: what if he's dead instead of just turned into one of Millenniummon's servants and the ENIAC didn't want to tell me? What if this isn't even another timeline! What if this _is_ my world, and Mom never existed and there's nothing left of Ken but an anime character!"

"I can take you there, so you could see," Babydmon said quietly, tail flicking worriedly but not propelling him closer to Ryo.

"You don't know?" Ryo didn't turn to look at him: his voice was somehow dull, resigned instead of disbelieving.

"I don't. I could program a way to find out without going there, but I've been sleeping inside of Hopmon instead of doing anything that would worry you, Ryo."

"You know what worries me? Seeing what you did to that copy of Ken, and remembering that there was something _strange_ about him after that thing hit him."

"One of my mind control devices. If matters resolved themselves the way they did in our timeline, he was freed months ago."

"I need to be sure," Ryo said, and Monodramon saw him realize that he'd handed Millenniummon a bargaining chip.

"…You would let me do this for you?" Babydmon asked with quiet hope.

"I won't owe you any favors. You owe this to Ken, after what you did to him."

"I will do it if you let me," the seahorse said – funny, that he called Monodramon 'dragon child,' when according to human stories, seahorses were baby dragons that grew up into dragons after a thousand years.

Hopmon blinked. A thousand years was a millennium.

* * *

 _Some worries and fallout. Since Ryo tends to default to silence under stress in the games... but in the Tamers anime, he's more willing to just throw words at people, so depending on how blended the personas are, I_ think _I can justify him venting like that._


	4. Chapter 4

_In the games, Ryo isn't a silent protagonist to start off with, but he's polite and not all that talkative. He goes quiet as the games progress…_

 _However, he's good at learning how to fight – and then re-learning it, since the mechanics are very different with the AI of the Tamers timeline (not to mention he has a partner now)._

 _So, classifying words as weapons? Especially since brute force hasn't worked. He's still not fantastic at it._

* * *

"Oh, it's another one of you Digi-pests," the Digimon Emperor said contemptuously as a brown-haired kid the age of the older Digidestined jumped down from the back of an armored humanoid dragon.

"Hey, Ken," he said, folding his arms and half-turning away from them to watch a larger blue dragon land next to the dragon he'd rode in on.

Yolei jerked. "Wait, Ken?!" The others echoed her.

"Who are you?" The Digimon Emperor demanded. "How did you recognize me?!"

"So much for a touching reunion… 'Freed months ago,' huh?" the new arrival said, glaring at the other dragon.

"Reunion?" the Emperor's little green Digimon asked, peeking out from behind its annoyed master.

The boy turned and smiled for a second, although he still looked concerned. "Don't you recognize me, Wormmon?" he laughed depreciatingly. "Have I really changed that much since we were in the Digital World together?"

The caterpillar clasped his front feet together. "You must be the person who was with me and Ken!" he said, excited… but then he drooped. "I don't remember your name, and Ken doesn't remember anything about when we were friends. Please, I've been trying to remind Ken, but he won't listen to me! All he wants to do is conquer the Digital World! …and it doesn't help that I don't remember much either," he said, drooping even more. "I just know that Ken was really kind to me…"

"My name is Ryo. You don't remember how you helped save the Digital World, Wormmon?" Ryo turned to look at the second dragon again, even more annoyed. "What did you do to him?"

"Of course I didn't bother to do anything to him, or to that Veemon who glued himself to your side," the dragon said, his wings and tail twitching with clear irritation.

"Saving the Digital World, this thing? He can't even Digivolve!" The emperor said, gesturing in Wormmon's direction with his whip. The little caterpillar cowered, shielding his head.

"Hey, leave him alone!" Raidramon roared.

Ryo cocked his head, taking a few steps towards the Digidestined to get a look around Nefertimon. "A Raidramon… Are you Veemon?"

"Yes, it's the same Veemon," the blue dragon said, glaring. "The Digidestined riding him is Daisuke, that fake partner's _true_ partner."

"Right, he's one of the people you cloned," Ryo said. "I'm not buying that this isn't your doing, Skydramon. We all know that somehow, this is all your fault."

"Right," growled the cyborg dragon, who had been silent up until now. "Hurry up and fix it."

The dragon heaved a great sigh.

"Skydramon, ultimate level," Cody was murmuring. "The smaller one's Cyberdramon, also Ultimate level."

"Tell me, worm," the blue dragon said to Wormmon, speaking over Cody. "You other worms as well. If the name Ryo Akiyama means nothing to you, even the four of you who fought beside him, then does the name Millenniummon?"

They looked at each other. "The… Y2K bug?" Yolei ventured.

"No, that was Diaboromon," TK said. Kari nodded.

"You remember Diaboromon, but not his creator… The dark seed still exists inside Ken Ichijouji, but none of you know of the battle that placed it there… What of the Dark Masters, and the one behind them?"

"Apocalymon?" TK asked, frowning.

"TK…" Pegasusmon said warningly, wings flaring back, ready to take off.

"I know." Something was wrong.

"Apocalymon." The great dragon laughed. None of them were a match for an ultimate: even TK and Kari couldn't digivolve to ultimate even if the control spire was taken down, not without their crests. "Machinedramon."

"I remember Machinedramon," Kari said, and now TK wasn't the only one with his eyes narrowed, looking at the dragon coldly, even if TK was mistrustful while Kari was _angry_. "Wargreymon killed him."

"Oh? Is that really what happened? Was it that _Agumon_ alone who defeated Machinedramon? With his own power, or even the Child of Courage's power?" Mocking her, the dragon was _mocking her_.

"How do you know what happened then?" TK demanded.

"Do _you_ know, Child of Hope? Because it's clear you don't know a great many things that you should." A fanged smirk, but instead of making them guess, that great head turned back to look at Ryo. "The ENIAC solved the problem of stabilizing history by purging the disruptive existence of the Evil God of Time. Millenniummon and later digivolutions specifically, while clearly his creations still exist. The bond between partners cannot be severed, so the Wormmon still knows his partner's true heart, even if he has only the vaguest inkling of _how_ he knows."

"Wouldn't that cause a lot of paradoxes?" Ryo asked, worried.

"A great deal of paradoxes, but it minimizes the disruption to history. It's possible to hold history intact without Millenniummon… if one possesses the power of Millenniummon, which you transferred to the ENIAC. Therefore, it's the ENIAC's fault that the boy hasn't been freed already."

Cyberdramon growled warningly.

"It's the ENIAC's fault the Digidestined don't remember Millenniummon. If they did, then they would have realized that a formerly-affectionate child was suddenly acting like a poor imitation of an evil god known for his use of _mind control technology_ , among other things," the large dragon said, voice laden with 'you silly child, should I use small words if you can't see something so obvious.' "As I said, this poor, pathetic worm should have been freed months ago. Don't blame me for the actions of your creator."

"We _all_ know this is his fault, not the ENIAC's, Cyberdramon," Ryo said reassuringly, patting the dragon on the arm. "Now fix it," he ordered Skydramon.

"How do you usually free pawns?"

"Hey!" The emperor stomped right up to the dragon. "Who are you calling a pawn?!" he demanded, drawing back his whip.

A band of blue energy from Ryo's digivice hit it before it could land, wrapping around it as Ryo ran toward the emperor and tackled him. "You can thank me for saving your life when you're back to normal… I just have to use my Digivice, right?" he asked, looking up at the dragon. Ken's attempt to hit Ryo's arm and get out from under him prompted a quick, vicious kick as Ryo shifted his weight to pin Ken without letting go of his digivice, which was already glowing. A beam of light shot from it to the Emperor's neck. "Scratch that, I'll have to apologize for bruising you…"

"The rest of you are free to begin using your digivices any time now…"

"You think Ryo needs their help?" Cyberdramon wondered.

"I'd rather hurry this process along."

"Davis?" Raidramon prompted.

"Right!" Davis raised his digivice to help as the Emperor continued to struggle and yell at Ryo to get his filthy hands off him.

"Wait," TK ordered.

Davis glared at him. "He's a digidestined, like us. So we should help him."

"It can't hurt, right?" Yolei said, digivice raised but not yet glowing like Davis' was.

"Something's wrong," Kari said. "Something's…"

"I know, Kari," TK said.

The dragon chuckled, voice deep. "I wasn't expecting the two of you to do anything helpful. You never have. Always needing others to save you and do all the actual work. Your brothers, your partners, poor Ryo, the gods themselves: tell me, in this new history the ENIAC created, have the two of you ever saved anyone? I'm certain you haven't: even a god with a second god's power to work with can only work so many miracles. Even the ENIAC couldn't make you or that Wormmon's partner any less pathetic."

Kari gasped. "Machinedramon!"

The dragon's sniggering distracted them from the moment Ken went limp, all of them but Raidramon and Wormmon anyway. "You really thought you'd managed to put an end to me? You couldn't even _run_ from me, you pathetic little vermin, and you thought you could _win_ against me? This one can't be blamed on the ENIAC: you truly believed I was defeated in the unaltered history as well, up until I returned and captured all of you to experiment on. Did the two of you ever notice the scars on your beloved brothers? I wonder if those scars are still there…" he mused.

"Shut _up_ , Skydramon," Ryo ordered, lowering his digivice and putting it back in his pocket without looking away from Ken. "No. Get lost, and get rid of that thing while you're at it," he said, pointing his arm in the direction of the control spire. "I know your stuff when I see it. This is _your_ mess: get it cleaned up."

"As you wish, beloved."

"And none of _that_ ," Ryo said, glaring after the dragon as it took off, swooping towards the control spire to knock it over by casually clipping it with a wing. "Keep him honest, Cyberdramon."

"What about you?" the other dragon asked, glancing between Skydramon and Ryo.

"I survived in the Digital World just fine before the ENIAC assigned you to babysit me. Wormmon and Veemon are here, so Ken and I will be fine."

"I'm not good enough yet to know for sure if he does something with his technology."

"He won't," Ryo said, sounding certain. "He doesn't care enough about this world to risk making me angry with him. I'm more worried about him making side trips because he had an idea and thought something would be cute. We shouldn't stay in this world for too long, and I have to make sure that Ken's okay before we can go see my parents. I'm not wasting time apologizing to Gennai or the other kids for my partner capturing them and hauling them here to apologize for something they probably don't even remember or something ridiculous like that. Just make him tell you what he's got planned."

"And tell him what you'd think of it." The dragon leaped into the air, thrusters firing to send him racing after Skydramon.

"Hey, his cape's gone," Davis realized when Ryo got off Ken and crouched next to him, getting a water bottle out of his bag.

"Was that being generated by the dark seed?" Ryo asked as he turned the now bare-faced Ken face-up and unscrewed the water bottle. "Did he really program _an outfit for me_ into that thing? I have the _worst partner ever_."

"Machinedramon's your partner?" TK asked, eyes wide.

" _Worst partner ever_ ," Ryo agreed. "Agumon's and your partners are all great – although I don't know you other two or your partners – Wormmon's really sweet and you got _Veemon_ ," he said, pointing at Davis. "Some people have _all_ the luck. _I_ get someone who thinks sending a mad science experiment to try to nuke a whole city is an acceptable way to flirt! If that outfit was programmed into the dark seed, it was supposed to go on _me_? If he used some clone as a paper doll to try out outfits to have me wear if he ever managed to capture me… what am I saying, of _course_ he did. As soon as I'm done visiting my family I'm going to kill him again!"

"Ryo?" Ken said, sounding really confused.

He was probably even more confused to find himself pulled up into a sitting position and a bear hug as soon as he said that.

"Hey," Ryo said, voice muffled by Ken's hair. "I'm sorry it took me so long to get here to help you."

Ken's arm rose slowly to pat Ryo's arms where they were wrapped around him almost absently. "Um…?" what was going on? "What…" His body stiffened. "What have I done?" His voice was strange: he sounded younger than Cody, well, younger than Cody would have sounded if Cody sounded his age. "I, I I hurt Digimon and… I used a whip on Wormmon!" he jerked free of Ryo's arms, looking around for his partner, eyes wild. "Wormmon!" he cried, rolling to his feet.

"Ken!" The little Digimon jumped up into Ken's arms, rubbing his face against the boy's chest when his partner caught him. "You're my Ken again!"

"Wormmon, you… You should have run away from me! How could you let me treat you like that?" The Digimon Emperor _sobbed_.

"I couldn't abandon you! You're Ken, you're the kindest person ever, I knew something had to be wrong and I had to help you somehow so you could be your old self again!"

"I'm going to kill him," Ryo said flatly. "Is it safe to do it while we're still in this timeline? I'll ask him."

Ken turned and Wormmon turned away from Ken's chest to stare at him.

"What?" Ryo started to ask, before touching his hand to his forehead. "Yeah, it's… it's been awhile."

"Are you okay, Ryo?" Ken asked, worried.

"As long as you two are okay… How much do you remember?"

"A desert. We were fighting a huge Digimon. Wormmon was happy we finally did it, but it aimed some kind of final attack at you…"

"And you pushed me out of the way," Ryo finished. "He wasn't really dead yet. We had to fight him again in his next form, and even that didn't do it." Ryo sighed. "That's my fault. He's my partner, so as long as I'm alive, he'll keep coming back to life with all his memories intact. That's why I was destined to be the one to fight him, too: I'm his partner, so he couldn't bring himself to kill me even when for all he knew I was some random human Agumon found as a substitute for Tai."

"Tai?" Davis blinked. "What's going on?"

No one seemed to notice his words, staring at the Digimon Emperor. The boy's eyes were wide, and… were they wet? Was the Digimon Emperor starting to cry? "I, I… I remember hurting people, Ryo. I remember _wanting_ to hurt people. I hated Sam, and now he's dead!" Ken wiped at his eyes and Ryo winced.

Then Ryo's eyes widened and he almost _snarled_. "I'm going to _kill him_! He went after your _brother?_ But he wasn't even a Digidestined!"

"No, it was a car, I remember it perfectly and everything to do with Millenniummon is only barely there," Ken said, shaking his head. "I'm the one who… It was my fault."

"There's no way anyone dying could possibly be your fault, Ken," Ryo insisted. "I've been to the past and the future and a whole other world with its own digital world, and you're the nicest kid I've ever met. When he gets back here I am getting some answers, but there is no way any of this is your fault."

"But how could Machinedramon have a Digidestined partner?" Kari asked, finding her voice after just _staring_ for most of this conversation.

"Every Digimon has a human partner somewhere out there," Ryo told her. "Except Cyberdramon. And the Digimon in the other world. Which makes jogressing really messed up, forget the cards… I don't know if the ENIAC managed to put those poor Clockmon back together afterwards… Millenniummon became too powerful for even you guys to stop, because he could stop time and just walk up to you and capture you, so Gennai did something to find the person destiny said could stop Millenniummon, and that was me. Even he couldn't bring himself to walk up to me and step on me, even if that just was instinctive self-preservation. _He_ thinks he loves me: _I_ think he doesn't know what the word means and it's better to tell himself that he doesn't _want_ to kill me than that he can't even make himself attack me without subconsciously sabotaging the attack. I fought him a few times and then Cyberdramon sealed him away, but of course it couldn't be that simple with _him_ involved."

The TV the Digidestined used to get here started to glow, and out came the two dragons. They landed behind Ryo, who frowned at them. "Alright, Cyberdramon, what did you let him do."

"I am an agent of the ENIAC and am entirely within my rights," Cyberdramon said.

Ryo turned to glare at Skydramon. "You are a _terrible influence_. What did you convince him to let you do."

"We saved the Digital World from Daemon and Dagomon, who would have come after Ken in the original timeline. Both of them were evil Digimon." Cyberdramon was unrepentant.

Ryo was unimpressed. "You realize that the instant you're back to Monodramon you'll sing like a canary. We don't have time for this," he told Skydramon. "First we get Ken home, because if your blasted dark seed made him act like you, then half the Digital World must be out for his blood by now, then we tell my parents I'm not dead, and then we go back. And then I _swear_ I will find out what you did and come up with some way to punish you that you won't actually enjoy the way you'd like me killing you with my bare hands."

"It is always a pleasure to have your personal attention, my beloved."

Blue eyes narrowed – _not funny_. "I _will_ forbid you from merging with Monodramon and refuse to look at you or speak to you for a week. Don't _push_ me, Skydramon."

The great blue dragon de-digivolved into a blue-green rookie lying prostrate on the ground before Ryo's feet.

"Get up," Ryo said flatly. "Don't remind me that you _like_ having slaves kneel at your feet, or insult me by comparing me to you." The Digimon quickly stood, and Ryo stared down at him. "We're going home now," he decided.

"What?" Cyberdramon asked. "Ryo?"

"I should have known better than to accept a gift from you. I give you a centimeter and you think you can go back to your old ways. Open the portal. Now."

"Yes, Ryo," the rookie said, quiet but obedient. A digi-port opened in the sky above them.

Davis and Raidramon looked at each other, feeling really lost here. This was messed up.

"I'm so sorry, Ryo," Ken said.

"You're not the one who handed out partners, or decided to become evil. All you did was try to help me so I didn't have to go up against this guy alone again," Ryo said flatly. "I'll come back if I ever have any reason to believe it'll be okay. I've got Cyberdramon's help, and some friends in the other world… I'm okay, Ken, really. Worry about yourself… what am I saying, you never do." He turned. "Raidramon, you and your partner look after Ken and Wormmon, alright?"

"Um… I guess?" Raidramon said.

"Right," Ryo said, walking up to Cyberdramon and climbing onto his back. "Pick him up and let's go."

"But… your family," Cyberdramon said, guttural voice quiet.

Ryo frowned down at the dragon. "You should have thought of that before you went along with his scheme even after he proved that insulting the other Digidestined was way more important to him than actually undoing any of his damage. If I can't count on you to help me keep him under control, then we're out of here. Move it, Cyberdramon."


	5. Chapter 5

Monodramon patted him on the shoulder. "I'm sorry."

A sigh. "Stop trying to comfort me, Monodramon. It defeats the purpose."

"How does it do that? You're supposed to be separated from Ryo, not me."

"I am supposed to _atone_ , Monodramon. That is done by suffering. You are distracting me from my suffering. I'm aware that I'm supposed to lie and say 'I appreciate the thought,' but no. I will not have you decreasing the meaning of this precious opportunity to atone, to prove to Ryo that I am willing to suffer and deny myself for his sake, that I will put aside my own desires to try to do as he asks. If you actually want to _help_ , then tear off an arm or something. Ryo has forbidden me from damaging myself."

"You're pretty warped," Monodramon said, patting him on the shoulder again.

Silence, before Dracomon admitted, "Yes. It would be safer to go back to sleep as part of you, because you were created to be a good partner for him and I have become warped, but he has offered me the chance to be welcome by his side in my own right, Monodramon." As it should have been.

Now Monodramon was the one to go quiet.

Dracomon chuckled. "Of course your kindness has its limits. Of course you don't want to lose your place by Ryo's side, not when he is such a precious treasure." Dracomon strained in his bonds, just a little, to nudge his shoulder against Monodramon's hand. "Ryo is not such a fickle creature, and I tasted my first sips of his precious affection while curled up in your soul. If I cared to have an empire again, I would keep the both of you at the heart of my palace, nestled among whatever gifts would make you happy."

"Are you tempting me? Because I'm supposed to tell Ryo if you're tempting me."

"No, I am not offering to conquer the worlds to grant you a life of luxury. It would displease Ryo, and that is what I care about. I would say 'conquer your own empire, dragon child,' but then Ryo would have to fight you, and that would sadden him, and I would have to _punish_ you for that transgression."

Relieved, Monodramon pressed up against Dracomon's side. "I miss him while he's at school."

"If we regressed to baby form and were quiet, we could stay in his backpack, but it might perhaps be worse to have Ryo right there and unwilling to pay attention to us. If I had a smartphone as a distraction, it might be pleasant."

"We're not supposed to give you anything with internet access." Monodramon wasn't hatched yesterday.

* * *

"I love you."

"You have a bad case of Stockholm Syndrome," Ryo said, but still scratched around where his horns met his head.

"I know, but you are kind, and glorious."

"Kind isn't something you would have valued before, of your own free will."

"I hadn't experienced my partner's kindness before. I longed for you, I needed yours too much to be able to savor anyone else's. How could I value pale imitations when I was starved of what I truly craved?"

"What _do_ you crave? If you could have anything you wanted, and I was okay with whatever, you didn't have to hurt me or have me be angry with you to get it, what would you want?"

"You, by my side. Fond of me, coming over to touch me like this because you want to. Smiling at the sight of me because it makes you happy to see me. Speaking to me, sharing your thoughts with me. Wanting to hear mine as well. Monodramon should stay with us, and I would like to have something to do when you are not here, but having you here, seeing that you are happy, knowing that you are safe… I would like to do something alongside you, but I haven't played the card game because that would be fighting against you, not by your side."

"Nothing else? There isn't anything you want for yourself."

"I just said there was. You, and your companionship. I sought you for thousands of years unknowing. With only a few decades left at most, why would I waste my time on some lesser prize than you?"

That thought stilled the hand on his horns, although Ryo didn't remove it. "They keep telling me I've got my whole life ahead of me," Ryo said bleakly. "I don't really know how to live without fighting anymore, the way you don't know how to not be a jerk to people who aren't me, and Monodramon. Monodramon told me that you were waiting for me to die so you could go with me, and that everything else was icing on the cake." He sighed. "This isn't an opportunity to turn over a new leaf or change your life for you, is it? Because there's so little of it left, this isn't even a new chapter of your life the way you see things."

"My purpose was always to find you. I have found you." Dracomon shrugged. "You are not a small prize, Ryo. If my core wasn't content to be with you, it wouldn't have thrown away everything to become a part of Monodramon. There are things that are pleasant, like Monodramon, continuing my studies and punishing the Digidestined for upsetting you by failing to save your friend as promptly as they should have, but they are merely pleasant diversions. You are what is important."

"We're both really messed up, aren't we?"

"What is the most important thing to Guilmon?"

"Takato. He does have interests outside of Takato, though."

"Bread, which Takato makes and gives to him. Swimming, which Takato also enjoys. Fighting alongside Takato. I _did_ run extensive tests while I had the populations of two timelines to experiment upon. Once a Digimon meets their partner, or once the link becomes active, it is natural for a Digimon's life to revolve around their human. Exceptions tended to involve humans who wanted their partner to choose their wishes and goals for them, or cases where the Digimon and human share the same goals, so the human's wishes reinforce the Digimon's wishes instead of overriding them. That is why the Dark Seed was programmed to program _you_ with certain aspects of my personality and my drives." Ryo's partner sighed, pushing his head up against Ryo's hand. "That is why I didn't want Monodramon to copy my bond to you and incorporate it into himself. Even though for him, it would be far more bliss than agony. You love him, and I would be able to taste his happiness as though it was my own…" Dracomon paused, tilted his head. "Why _did_ I stop him? Well, I'd only just been woken up after being pulled apart and made a part of another being, I probably wasn't thinking straight yet."

"Right, temporary insanity is the only reason you'd ever want to save someone's life," Ryo said, and wished he could be certain that he was joking.

"He gave me you."

"Do you _want_ to die?"

"I have never been afraid of death. For me, it was never anything but a temporary inconvenience. Lost time: little different from sleep. What I fear is not death, but immortality. That you might die and I would not die with you, leaving me in eternal agony. I know it doesn't work that way, I know that when you die I will join you, but…" He shuddered, and dared to press closer to Ryo. "I have known peace by your side, I have tasted your happiness and affection, even if they were for Monodramon instead of for me and I can't bear the thought of going back to the agony of being without you, screaming for what I now know I'm missing and will never have again…" He _shuddered_. "A final death would be peace, it would be freedom from that fear, but I still don't want you to die, Ryo. While you're alive, you are here and I can hope that I will be permitted at your side, but if you die tomorrow, what if, what if I _don't._ "

Ryo let the shivering dragon press against his chest.

"What if you hate me so much your power severs our bond, what if you _leave me here_ when you go? What if you despise me so much you don't want to take me with you?"

"Not much chance of that," Ryo said, tucking Dracomon's head on his shoulder. "I know what happens when you're unsupervised. You're a genius: if it scares you that much, then I guess you can… No, you'd probably have to do studies to get enough data to verify that you'll die when I die, and I'm not letting you do that. Still, the fact that you would is a reason I can't just go and leave you behind for other people to deal with, ok?"

"I love you."

"Like water in the desert, but that's need, not love."

"I know, but let me love you? It hurts less."

"How does it hurt less?"

"I tried to fight my destiny, and I hurt you in the process. I don't want to hurt you anymore. It's better to give in."

Those words… quiet, broken, and resigned to being broken. It hurt to hear them, to hear anyone in pain, even if Ryo knew Millenniummon deserved it. He still squeezed the dragon. Held his partner.

"I love you," Dracomon said, that same empty, quiet resignation in it. "I am also fond of you, Ryo. I think highly of you. Even if someone who gave in instead of forcing me to give in would hurt less, you are… I don't resent it when it's you. You are worthy."

Was that true, or was he just telling himself that because it hurt less?

"…what would it harm if you felt some affection for me?"

Ryo's eyes narrowed. So this was a play for pity. "You'd use it."

"Yes," of course. The accusation made Dracomon smile: evidence Ryo knew him. "To do what, do you think?"

"To control me."

"To control you to make you do _what_? It has been extensively proven that I cannot bring myself to harm you, Ryo, not when my mind is programmed to protect you and oversees all my plans because it is what creates them." Dracomon nudged his head against Ryo, just gently. Ryo could tell which of them was on which side of him at night because Dracomon was warmer than Monodramon. "I threw away conquest of two worlds to be by your side. I am programmed to love you, and it is natural to want to be loved in return. I want to make you love me _so that you will love me_." Not just longing in his voice, but the bliss the thought brought him. "You are not a tool, Ryo, to use to achieve some goal. You _are_ my goal, the prize I sought all along."

"There _is_ another reason. Something you're not saying," Ryo knew.

"…Love and programming alike make me want you to be well and happy. I know you hate mind control, but… It feels so good, Ryo. When I was asleep inside the egg, I couldn't fight it anymore. Without my mind to interfere with my programming, I awoke to find that I had given in and it was so _sweet_ ," Ryo could hear him savoring the words. "It is not mindless happiness, or perfect happiness: I can no longer even try to shield my core from you, and so your rejection cuts me to the bone, but… You're trying to fight it, Ryo, and I know how exhausting that is. How it hurts your core to see your partner as an enemy. I know it is not in your nature to surrender, but I want you to be happy, no matter the cost, and you will feel better once you give in, Ryo. I love you, and I am yours, and I have never tasted happiness like this. Humans existed before Digimon, independent of Digimon, so you do not need me the way I need you. Knowing that I am yours will make you less happy than being yours makes me, but… I want this for you, Ryo. Your core is still in turmoil, and this will bring you some measure of peace. I am meant to protect you, not wound your heart, and this will soothe those wounds."

Seductive, Ryo realized. That was the word for the strange, whispery tone in Dracomon's voice. It made his arms tense, made him want to draw away, get away.

"See?" his partner asked him. "You will keep fighting your destiny, do everything you can to avoid giving in, because you know what I was like before I gave in, and you know to fear mind control. Something powerful enough to break and bind the will of the master of mind control? You will fight it, Ryo, but I could never lie to you and I cannot refuse you anything now." No trace of resentment, only peace. "I love you with all my mind and all my core, and as I longed to tear apart the worlds to find you, to be by your side, I will still do anything for you. Even sleep and never trouble you again. Even die, as soon as it is possible for me to die. Even watch you smile as you speak to Monodramon and be glad for you…" A momentary frown. "Monodramon… Monodramon is an acceptable partner to you, Ryo? He makes you happy? Are you glad to have him by your side?"

"I am."

Dracomon let out a little sigh of relief.

* * *

"Don't touch my belly!" Petitmon squeaked. "Ah, ah, ahchoo!" The sneeze of hot air sent him rocketing backwards, tumbling upside-down. Once he'd gotten his bearings, he zoomed behind Ketomon as fast as his little wings could push him. "I can't help itpleasedon't bemadRyo, it'sareflex!"


	6. Chapter 6

_When this was going to have a plot instead of being an examination of a shiny thing, the Digidestined would have found that the Sovereign were sealed again and this would have resulted in contact between the worlds._

 _Tamers!Digimon are 'artificial Digimon,' like Diaboromon/Diablomon and BlackWarGreymon, so if everyone in Adventure 'verse has a Digimon partner, then after the ending of 02, Tamers universe humans who went over to Adventure 'verse would find a partner spontaneously generated for them, which would be awkward to people who were already Tamers._

 _Also, why is there no Digital World in Tamers' timeline, only the dimension that's called the Network in Adventure 'verse, where the Network and Digital World are two different dimensions entirely and this is very important to the worldbuilding? What caused the Digital World to exist in Adventure, and what could trigger the formation of one in Tamers' timeline?_

 _I'm generally blaming Millenniummon for another timeline like Tamers existing, especially since he did conquer it in the bad future of the fourth game. It says something that the timeline he spawned was one where Digimon didn't come into existence shackled to humans._

 _Monodramon is presumably an artificial Digimon – created by the ENIAC – meaning Ryo's bond with him isn't a partner bond like a Digidestined, but the Tamer bond Takato and the others have. But I like to consider possibilities…_

* * *

"You are as I named you: Monodramon," the ENIAC told him. "I have… not always told you the truth, but… You must have asked yourself how I could have given you such a fate if I loved you. I was not the one who gave you your fate, although I did attempt to shape it. For everyone's sakes, but you were such a kind, responsible child, Monodramon. I knew that the history which would play out in the future was a tragedy, but to know the nature of your core… how cruel it was. How _wrong_."

"Stop," Millenniummon said. "How _dare_ you, claiming you never meant to be cruel to him and then turning around and telling him this while Ryo is here. No. Telling him this at _all_ , when he will insist on telling Ryo the truth, taking _responsibility_ for something he never knew, for things he had no part in."

"Don't even _think_ about threatening him!"

"Of course I won't, Ryo. Even if I can never undo what I've done so you will love me without a number of sacrifices that would _ensure_ your eternal hatred, I won't add another crime to the wall between us. I simply ask him to _consider his words_."

"You want to protect Monodramon, when the truth would help you?"

"Nothing will help me. The wall is too great to ever be torn down, especially not in a human's lifetime. You sent me Monodramon to offer me a dream to dream, in my captivity. A dream of everything being as it should have been, a dream where I fought to protect Ryo as his beloved partner. Now you are taking that dream away from me, and…" Dracomon closed his eyes. "There is nothing I can do, is there? All I can do is make the outcome even worse. I know my crimes, I know that I don't deserve the happiness I tasted sleeping at Ryo's side, but will you do what the Sovereign did, and break Ryo's heart to get to me?" He whirled to face Monodramon and Ryo. "Leave," he ordered them. " _Go_ , and I will let what happens to me happen, if you promise to never let the ENIAC tell you this. If you promise to never think of those words, _you will never have to see me again, Ryo_. I will never trouble you or anyone else, you will be free of me for the rest of your days."

"Why is it that important to you?" Ryo asked.

"Because there is nothing left for me but agony and a dying dream, and even if I can no longer dream that dream for myself… at least I would be able to hold it in my heart, know that it still exists. That you… Go," he begged Ryo. "Please. Please let me know that you retain one shred of happiness and innocence. That there is one thing I have not ruined for you. Please, Ryo. Please do not… Monodramon loves you, he would never hurt you or betray you."

"Yes," the ENIAC agreed. "Monodramon's origin does not change the fact that he was willing to sacrifice himself to protect the world, and so Ryo had a chance to be happy."

"And you will take that chance from both of them. Be avenged on me – on _me,_ the one who sent the assassins to your door. Do what you _will_ to me, anything you can to add to the agony of separation from Ryo _but this_. This one pure thing… will you taint it for him?"

"Have faith in Ryo," the ENIAC urged him.

"I _do_ have faith in my partner. I know that he will never…" Dracomon laughed, low and dark. "I have let myself remain powerless, and this is what happens to the powerless: their words and wills mean nothing. I cannot stop you without going against Ryo, and I cannot do that. I cannot even protect my partner." He turned away from the ENIAC and curled up on the ground, closing his eyes.

Turning his back on the ENIAC, because he had no faith the god would listen to reason. 'Wake me when it's over?' Or trying to suppress some emotion, enough pride left to refuse to beg and plead uselessly?

Any more than he had already begged.

For _him_ to say please to anyone but Ryo? But he'd said it to Monodramon once, when he asked to sleep so Ryo wouldn't hate him.

Or maybe he was shutting himself down, closing out the outside world, before he did anything to make Ryo hate him. Before he killed Monodramon's creator to protect Ryo from the truth?

"Is it really that bad?" Monodramon asked quietly.

Dracomon didn't answer. The ENIAC sighed. "It is a very sad story, my child. I believe that the knowledge will help the three of you, but I do not wish to hurt you."

"If you think it will help, I trust your judgment a lot more than I trust his," Monodramon reassured him. "Of course he'd only see the dark side of things. He thought that _fighting_ Ryo was the least bad thing that could happen."

"Then… I will trust your judgment. Do you remember when I explained to you the origin of the digital world?"

"The first digital process and associated signals provided a catalyst for the crystallization of signals given off by analogue processes, since the human population had increased to the point that Earth's electromagnetic field was supersaturated with those signals," Monodramon said promptly. "The Digital World is so big even though digital computing power is so small in this era because digital processes are the specs of dust that are required for a cloud of water to form in the sky in the human world, not the entire cloud."

Ryo blinked. "You're saying the Digital World is the collective unconscious? That… explains a lot actually," he realized, looking thoughtful. "So humans, or at least our thoughts and memories, are like you and Atanasoff-Berry, part of the foundation of the Digital World? We're unconscious of it, but… Wow," he said.

"The Atanasoff-Berry computer, like myself, is too small for the computer alone to support a mind as intelligent as a human's. The activation of the Atanasoff-Berry crystallized the human collective unconscious, and it became self-aware, the Will of the Digital World. Since the center of her mind was the computer, and the other computers connected to the digital world had minds of their own which were not herself, she identified as the computer. When the ENIAC was switched on, she granted me enough processing power made up of thoughts for self-awareness when I did not become self-aware on my own. She granted me power to help maintain what became the Digital World, but I do not possess it innately. We expanded on the space she created in which to speak to me, and found that other intelligences did appear naturally once there was space for them to appear and forms for them to take, spawned by supercomputers that _did_ possess enough power to catalyze the formation of a sapient consciousness on their own."

"Digimon are born from human minds," Monodramon said, "but I'm made from yours… Except I'm not, am I?"

The ENIAC's rings dipped in acknowledgement. "My core processor does not have enough power for the signals my mind gives off to take the form of a Digi-core. The human and digital worlds could be called the Conscious and Unconscious worlds: to a human, a Digimon is their subconscious, but to a Digimon in this world, their human is their subconscious, the foundation of their mind, a source of dreaming impulses. A Digimon does not die when their body dies because their core – their soul – remains. Destroying a Digimon's body does not normally harm their core, because their core resides in another body, elsewhere."

"If I died in my dreams, that won't actually kill me," Ryo said. "That's just a superstition."

"Yes," the ENIAC agreed. "Your partner was born some time after you were, when your mind grasped enough to have the thought 'I am.' That thought entered your memories, self-awareness became part of your imprint on the collective unconsciousness, and soon afterwards your partner became self-aware. The computer that is your brain generates two consciousnesses: one in the human world and one in the Digital World."

"Two sides of a coin," Ryo said, eyes downcast and guilty.

"The relationship between the human will and their dreaming mind, between a human and the collective unconscious is complex. I doubt I will fully understand it even fifty years from now, but some humans and Digimon possess unusual abilities. Partners usually do not possess the same abilities, or even the same amount of strength, because you are different people. When two people pool their strength, they can achieve far more than they could alone, and this is even more true of partners, because by giving their partner strength, they can make themselves stronger as well. I do not know whose abilities began to open the link between you and your partner, Ryo, but once it opened, even a crack? If both partners have abilities that can strengthen the other partner's abilities…"

"Positive feedback loop. Exponential power increase."

"Yes," the ENIAC agreed. "It is natural for a partner to help your partner, and the more you aided each other, the wider you opened the link. A human mind does not need a Digimon, because your species existed for millions of years, and only a few of you had any sort of power to crystallize your own unconscious into a second mind. It seems that Digimon are different. Normally, if partners are able to open the link on their own, they have some sort of power of communication. They are able to meet, somehow, through their shared thoughts and stabilize the bond. If the bond is _not_ stabilized, the chaotic flows of power they have no real ability to predict or control affect the Digimon's core. Their foundation becomes unstable, and they are subconsciously aware that there is someone they must find, or something they must do, in order to feel well again. Once you and your partner met, Ryo, you began to have emotions about him, focused on him, with the link still unstable. But I said that I would tell you Monodramon's story, not Dracomon's."

Ryo opened his mouth. Paused. "How long was I sleeping before I came to in this time?" he finally ventured.

"You weren't in a coma," the ENIAC assured him, "but you are a human, so when you were sent into the past you appeared in the human world. We pulled you into the Digital World for your safety, but you were the first transfer between the two worlds. It took Atanasoff-Berry and I awhile to download you into the Digital World. Thankfully, you were sent to the time of _my_ awakening, not Atanasoff-Berry's."

Ryo winced at the thought. "But my brain was still asleep, not nonexistent. Still sending out thoughts that become part of the collective unconscious."

The ENIAC dipped his rings.

Ryo took that as a signal to go on. "That became Monodramon."

"Yes," the ENIAC said. "Your memories contained a great deal of how the Digital World would one day be, and that knowledge was absorbed into the collective unconscious. Monodramon's egg appeared during my first meeting with my creator. We were quite confused until she read the data in your mind. The egg did not hatch until some time after other Digimon had appeared on their own." His light dimmed. "There is a reason we did not tell you of Atanasoff-Berry's existence, Monodramon. I am sorry."

"Well, it was important, I mean, if the foundation of the Digital World is de-destroyed everyone would die, so I understand why you didn't tell anyone…?"

"So Monodramon is every bit as much my partner as Millenniummon is," Ryo said, or insisted, to change the subject before Monodramon could feel hurt or singled out.

"Monodramon _is_ your partner. Your one and only partner. Mono, Milli: I am not a binary computer, but in both one and a thousand, there is only a single One. From the perspective of the time stream, _your_ mind first began generating thoughts more than three times; once in the 1950s and again in the 1980s, in 2004, your arrival now... Does that mean that there are four of you? When you did not respond to what I told you, since your partner remembered nothing I assumed you were the same. That both of you had suffered enough to choose to throw away your memories. I thought that once we finished downloading you, Ryo, that the two of you could heal together, but Millenniummon's attacks began. We felt his will when he attacked us. He had to be stopped, for all the children coming into existence around us, for your sake, for Monodramon's sake. We knew that they would eventually become one person, and for Monodramon to be crushed by that terrible madness? For Monodramon to _remain_ crushed by it? I heard one heart beating in that egg, Ryo, and I knew that Monodramon would never choose to be someone who would hurt you… And that may be why they did not integrate. Millenniummon surrendered his power, but it seems he has not allowed his memories to become Monodramon's."

"Why should Monodramon have to remember sins he had nothing to do with? Why should he have to remember an empty world when he has never been alone? My memories offer him nothing but pain and power that in the end was _useless_."

"You knew when we merged?" Monodramon asked.

"No, which is why I cautioned you to not become bound to Ryo. Perhaps I was already aware in my core, and had already decided that you should not have to… Of course I figured it out before long, once I was fully awake," Dracomon said testily. "You are the partner Ryo should have had, the partner I am too twisted to be, and I will not allow my memories to break and twist you until you are no longer capable of being his partner. I adjusted the flow of time to give myself centuries to master my new powers. I conducted extensive tests. When two of the same individual are in the same place at the same time, the force of time will act upon them slightly, trying to see if they can merge to eliminate the paradox. I am the God of Time, its embodiment, and so it acted through me, to merge me with myself. In that place, at that time, there were two of me, and the me that stood at Ryo's side had no desire to become a god, and the me that was a god only wished to be by Ryo's side."

Monodramon looked horrified, but not at Dracomon. He turned to the ENIAC. "But I was happy with you, even before Ryo came! I cared about you!" Really, he did!

"Shall I tell you about torture, and how it works?" Dracomon asked softly. "You are so very young, Monodramon. In time, you would have slowly ceased to care so much about your 'creator,' and thought that you were just growing up, developing your own interests. You would have wondered why you once wanted to spend time with him, why he once seemed so wise, and wondered if there would ever be anyone else you would find worth loving… but no matter how hard you were driven to search, you would have found no-one and nothing worth caring for, until eventually the evidence would have proved that there _was_ nothing… and yet that hunger would have continued to gnaw at you, the instinctive knowledge that there _was_ someone out there would have kept you searching, doing whatever it took to keep searching, crushing anyone in your way even when you forgot you ever had a destination. You would have _hungered,_ and kept _taking_ from others even knowing that none of it would satisfy you but still unable to stop trying to silence the craving. I know how the minds of Digimon work, Monodramon. I know the methods that can be use to set compulsions, the ways of enforcing conditioning… and then I recognized them in myself. It wasn't my beloved who broke me. I was broken beyond repair long before I ever had the chance to meet him. Too broken to be the partner he should have had, so all I could be was his enemy. I wanted to write a new history for the world not to change my beloved so he would be willing to be mine, but to change my history as well, so it would be _possible_ for me to be with him."

"But it is possible for you to be with him," said the ENIAC. "You are with him now. I sent Monodramon to the future so you would see that you did not need to be an Evil God or harm anyone to have the peace your core needed."

The red-eyed rookie glared at him. "I will not contaminate Monodramon with my memories. _I will not harm my beloved_. Not again. Never again."


End file.
